Sample records for relaxation measurements performed

Description of a simple electronic system that permits the direct measurement of time constants of decaying signals. The system was used in connection with relaxation experiments on hydrogen and rubidium masers and was found to operate well. The use of a computing counter in the systems gives the possibility of making averages on several experiments and obtaining the standard deviation of the results from the mean. The program for the computing counter is given.

are needed as the beads are magnetized by the field generated by the applied sensor bias current. We show that the Brownian relaxation frequency can be extracted from fitting the Cole-Cole model to measurements for bead concentrations of 64 mu g/ml or higher and that the measured dynamic magnetic response......We present on-chip Brownian relaxationmeasurements on a logarithmic dilution series of 40 nm beads dispersed in water with bead concentrations between 16 mu g/ml and 4000 mu g/ml. The measurements are performed using a planar Hall effect bridge sensor at frequencies up to 1 MHz. No external fields...

Resistance-to-time converter is always used for digital temperature measurement. An reset-set (RS) trigger based, relaxation oscillator based temperature measurement circuit, which is used to convert the change of thermistor sensor into a frequency signal for later processing, has been presented in this article. The RS trigger, which is composed of two inverters designed with distinct logical transition threshold voltages by changing the metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistor gains, has the same function as the Schmitt trigger in the relaxation oscillator. The advantage of the RS trigger based Schmitt trigger is that it reduces the dependence to supply voltage, chip temperature, and process variation. This temperature measurement circuit has been applied in a clinical thermometer chip that can measure temperature to an accuracy of better than 0.05℃ down to 1.1 V battery voltage. It is fabricated in 0.5double metal single poly complementary MOS (CMOS) process.

Closely spaced targets can result in merged measurements, which complicate data association. Such merged measurements violate any assumption that each measurement relates to a single target. As a result, it is not possible to use the auction algorithm in its simplest form (or other two-dimensional assignment algorithms) to solve the two-dimensional target-to-measurement assignment problem. We propose an approach that uses the auction algorithm together with Lagrangian relaxation to incorporate the additional constraints resulting from the presence of merged measurements. We conclude with some simulated results displaying the concepts introduced, and discuss the application of this research within a particle filter context.

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxation of fluids in porous media is affected by the solid-liquid interface. Quantitative determination of the surface relaxivity is significantly important for both investigation and application of relaxation mechanisms in porous media. A method to estimate the surface relaxivity with the combination of relaxation and diffusion measurements is proposed. According to this method, a criterion for testing the current diffusion and relaxation theory for porous media is available.

Using laser optical pumping, the nuclear spin polarization of noble gases can be strongly enhanced. The purpose of this study was to make a simple apparatus that can provide hyperpolarized {sup 129}Xe gas, which can then be used in an attempt to obtain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We would also like to study the relaxation behavior of hyperpolarized {sup 129}Xe gas through the measurement of the relaxation time. First, we demonstrated that hyperpolarized {sup 129}Xe gas can be applied to magnetic resonance imaging of the stomach, by using a rat as a model. This was performed under a 4.7 T magnet field using the following imaging parameters for the hyperpolarized {sup 129}Xe gas: TR=50 ms, TE=15 ms, FOV=10 x 10 cm{sup 2}, matrix size 64 x 64, THK=2.54 cm. By using these parameters, we were able to obtain a hyperpolarized image of the stomach in rats for the first time. Next, we measured the relaxation times of the hyperpolarized {sup 129}Xe gas enclosed in cavities such as the stomach of rats as well as in phantoms created by glass and gelatin bulbs. The cavity size dependency of the relaxation time was analyzed on the basis of the kinetic theory of gases. This analysis showed a linear relationship between the relaxation rate (1/T{sub 1}) and a square inverse of the cavity diameter (1/d{sup 2}). From this relationship, the wall effect on the {sup 129}Xe relaxation can be estimated in the novel parameter t{sub 1}, {sub wall}. This shows drastic dependency on the material of the wall, suggesting a potential use of the relaxation experiment as a diagnostic tool for organ surfaces in the future. (author)

The spin-lattice relaxation time (T1) plays a crucial role in the study of spin dynamics, signal optimization and data quantification. However, the measurement of chemical shift-specific T1 constants is hampered by the magnetic field inhomogeneity due to poorly shimmed external magnetic fields or intrinsic magnetic susceptibility heterogeneity in samples. In this study, we present a new protocol to determine chemical shift-specific T1 constants in inhomogeneous fields. Based on intermolecular double-quantum coherences, the new method can resolve overlapped peaks in inhomogeneous fields. The measurement results are in consistent with the measurements in homogeneous fields using the conventional method. Since spatial encoding technique is involved, the experimental time for the new method is very close to that for the conventional method. With the aid of T1 knowledge, some concealed information can be exploited by T1 weighting experiments.

Studies two intact classes of 30 undergraduate students enrolled in a mathematics course; however, one group received relaxation training during an initial class meeting and during the first 5-7 minutes of each subsequent class. The group which received the relaxation training had significantly lower mathematics anxiety and significantly higher…

We introduce and demonstrate an experimental method, optically-detected spin-echo (ODSE), to measure ground-state relaxation times of a rubidium (Rb) atomic vapor held in a glass cell with buffer-gas. The work is motivated by our studies on high-performance Rb atomic clocks, where both population and coherence relaxation times (T 1 and T 2, respectively) of the ‘clock transition’ (52S1/2 | {F}g = 1,{m}F=0> ≤ftrightarrow | {F}g=2,{m}F=0> ) are relevant. Our ODSE method is inspired by classical nuclear magnetic resonance spin-echo method, combined with optical detection. In contrast to other existing methods, like continuous-wave double-resonance (CW-DR) and Ramsey-DR, principles of the ODSE method allow suppression of decoherence arising from the inhomogeneity of the static magnetic field across the vapor cell, thus enabling measurements of intrinsic relaxation rates, as properties of the cell alone. Our experimental result for the coherence relaxation time, specific for the clock transition, measured with the ODSE method is in good agreement with the theoretical prediction, and the ODSE results are validated by comparison to those obtained with Franzen, CW-DR and Ramsey-DR methods. The method is of interest for a wide variety of quantum optics experiments with optical signal readout.

At the moment the biomedical applications of magnetic fluids are the subject of intensive scientific interest. In the present work, magnetite nanoparticles (MNPs) were synthesized and stabilized in aqueous medium with different carboxylic compounds (citric acid (CA), polyacrylic acid (PAA), and sodium oleate (NaOA)), in order to prepare well stabilized magnetic fluids (MFs). The magnetic nanoparticles can be used in the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as contrast agents. Magnetic resonance relaxationmeasurements of the above MFs were performed at different field strengths (i.e., 0.47, 1.5 and 9.4 T) to reveal the field strength dependence of their magnetic responses, and to compare them with that of ferucarbotran, a well-known superparamagnetic contrast agent. The measurements showed characteristic differences between the tested magnetic fluids stabilized by carboxylic compounds and ferucarbotran. It is worthy of note that our magnetic fluids have the highest r2 relaxivities at the field strength of 1.5 T, where the most of the MRI works in worldwide. - Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Magnetic resonance relaxationmeasurements were done at different field strengths. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Results show characteristic differences between the tested carboxylated MFs. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer r1 and r2 relaxivities depend on the thickness of the protecting layer. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer MFs have high r2/r1 ratios at each magnetic field.

The magnetic particle spectroscopy is a newly developed non-invasive technique for obtaining information about the nanoparticles' micro environment. In this technique the nanoparticles' magnetization, induced by an alternating magnetic field at various applied frequencies, is processed to analyze rotational freedom of nanoparticles. By analyzing average rotational freedom, it is possible to measure the nanoparticle's relaxation time, and hence get an estimate of the temperature and viscosity of the medium. In molecular concentration sensing, the rotational freedom indicates the number of nanoparticles that are bound by a selected analyte. We have developed microscopic nanoparticles probes to measure the concentration of selected molecules. The nanoparticles are targeted to bind the selected molecule and the resulting reduction in rotational freedom can be quantified remotely. Previously, sensitivity measurements has been reported to be of the factor of 200. However, with our newer perpendicular field setup (US Patent Application Serial No 61/721,378), it possible to sense cytokine concentrations as low as 5 Pico-Molar in-vitro. The excellent sensitivity of this apparatus is due to isolation of the drive field from the signal so the output can be amplified to a higher level. Dartmouth College.

We investigate the relaxation of a superconducting qubit for the case when its detector, the Josephson bifurcation amplifier, remains latched in one of its two (meta)stable states of forced vibrations. The qubit relaxation rates are different in different states. They can display strong dependence on the qubit frequency and resonant enhancement, which is due to {\\em quasienergy resonances}. Coupling to the driven oscillator changes the effective temperature of the qubit.

Vapor cells with antirelaxation coating are widely used in modern atomic physics experiments due to the coating's ability to maintain the atoms' spin polarization during wall collisions. We characterize the performance of vapor cells with different coating materials by measuring longitudinal spin relaxation and vapor density at temperatures up to 95{\\deg}C. We found that the spin-projection-noise-limited sensitivity for atomic magnetometers with such cells improves with temperature, which demonstrates the potential of antirelaxation coated cells in applications of future high-sensitivity magnetometers.

Vapor cells with antirelaxation coating are widely used in modern atomic physics experiments due to the coating's ability to maintain the atoms' spin polarization during wall collisions. We characterize the performance of vapor cells with different coating materials by measuring longitudinal spin relaxation and vapor density at temperatures up to 95 °C. We infer that the spin-projection-noise-limited sensitivity for atomic magnetometers with such cells improves with temperature, which demonstrates the potential of antirelaxation coated cells in applications of future high-sensitivity magnetometers.

We compare measurements of the Brownian relaxation response of magnetic nanobeads in suspension using planar Hall effect sensors of cross geometry and a newly proposed bridge geometry. We find that the bridge sensor yields six times as large signals as the cross sensor, which results in a more ac...... performed in a commercial AC susceptometer. The presented bridge sensor is, thus, a promising component in future lab-on-a-chip biosensors for detection of clinically relevant analytes, including bacterial genomic DNA and proteins....

Full Text Available Background/Aims : Memory and selective attention are important skills for academic and professional performance. Techniques to improve these skills are not taught either in education or company training courses. Any system which can systematically improve these skills will be of value in schools, universities, and workplaces. Aims:To investigate possible improvements in memory and selective attention, as measured by the Digit-Letter Substitution Task (DLST, due to practice of Cyclic Meditation (CM, a yoga relaxation technique, as compared to Supine Rest (SR. Materials and Methods : Subjects consisted of 253 school students, 156 boys, 97 girls, in the age range 13-16 years, who were attending a 10-day yoga training course during summer vacation. The selected subjects had English as their medium of instruction in school and they acted as their own controls. They were allocated to two groups, and tested on the DLST, immediately before and after 22.5 minutes practice of CM on one day, and immediately before and after an equal period of SR on the other day. The first group performed CM on day 9 and SR on day 10. For the second group, the order was reversed. Results : Within each group pre-post test differences were significant for both the relaxation techniques. The magnitude of net score improvement was greater after SR (7.85% compared to CM (3.95%. Significance levels were P < 0.4 x 10 -9 for SR and P < 0.1 x 10 -3 for CM. The number of wrong attempts also increased significantly on both interventions, even after removing two outlier data points on day 1 in the SR group. Conclusions: Both CM and SR lead to improvement in performance on the DLST. However, these relaxation techniques lead to more wrong cancellation errors.

Several circumstances may explain the great variation in reported proton T1 and T2 relaxation times usually seen. This study was designed to evaluate the accuracy of relaxation time measurements by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) operating at 1.5 tesla. Using a phantom of nine boxes with different...

additional analysis done in SOLIDWORKS . For the first method of analysis, PolyWorks is used to cut out the unnecessary portions of the raw scan data. Then...each tape spring is exported as a ‘.stl’ file. This file is imported as a surface into a SOLIDWORKS part file. The SOLIDWORKS parts are combined into...analyzed using MATLAB, PolyWorks, and SOLIDWORKS . These data provide a greater insight into the stress relaxation of tape springs when deformed

The relaxed eddy-accumulation (REA) technique was specially adapted to a high-performance liquid chromatographer (enzymatic method) and scrubbing coils to measure concentrations and fluxes of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and organic peroxides with a carbon chain C4, of which only methylhydroperoxide (MH

In the educational, employment, and clinical context, attitude and personality inventories are used to measure typical performance traits. Statistical models are applied to obtain latent trait estimates. Often the same statistical models as the models used in maximum performancemeasurement are appl

The performance of 2D NMR diffusion-relaxationmeasurements for fluid typing applications is analyzed. In particular, we delineate the region in the diffusion - relaxation plane that can be determined with a given gradient strength and homogeneity, and compare the performance of the single and double echo encoding with the stimulated echo diffusion encoding. We show that the diffusion editing based approach is able to determine the diffusion coefficient only if the relaxation time T2 exceeds a cutoff value T2,cutoff , that scales like T2,cutoff ∝g - 2 / 3D - 1 / 3 . For stimulated echo encoding, the optimal diffusion encoding times (Td and δ), that provide the best diffusion sensitivity, rely only on the T1 /T2 ratios and not on the diffusion coefficients of the fluids or the applied gradient strengths. Irrespective of T1 , for high enough gradients (i.e. when γ2g2 DT23 >102), the Hahn echo based encoding is superior to encoding based on the stimulated echo. For weaker gradients, the stimulated echo is superior only if the T1 /T2 ratio is much larger than 1. For single component systems, the diffusion sensitivity is not adversely impacted by the uniformity of the gradients and the diffusion distributions can be well measured. The presence of non-uniform gradients can affect the determination of the diffusion distributions when you have two fluids of comparable T2 . In such situations the effective single component diffusion coefficient is always closer to the geometric mean diffusion coefficient of the two fluids.

The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of music and muscle relaxation techniques on sleep quality and emotional measures in individuals with Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Thirteen PTSD patients, who had no other major psychiatric, sleep, or neurological disorders, participated in the study. The study comprised one 7-day, running-in, no-treatment period, followed by two 7-day experimental periods. The treatments were either music relaxation or muscle relaxation techni...

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a powerful tool to probe into geological materials such as hydrocarbon reservoir rocks and groundwater aquifers. It is unique in its ability to obtain in situ the fluid type and the pore size distributions (PSD). The T1 and T2 relaxation times are closely related to the pore geometry through the parameter called surface relaxivity. This parameter is critical for converting the relaxation time distribution into the PSD and so is key to accurately predicting permeability. The conventional way to determine the surface relaxivity ρ2 had required independent laboratory measurements of the pore size. Recently Zielinski et al. proposed a restricted diffusion model to extract the surface relaxivity from the NMR diffusion-T2 relaxation (DT2) measurement. Although this method significantly improved the ability to directly extract surface relaxivity from a pure NMR measurement, there are inconsistencies with their model and it relies on a number of preset parameters. Here we propose an improved signal model to incorporate a scalable LT and extend their method to extract the surface relaxivity based on analyzing multiple DT2 maps with varied diffusion observation time. With multiple diffusion observation times, the apparent diffusion coefficient correctly describes the restricted diffusion behavior in samples with wide PSDs, and the new method does not require predetermined parameters, such as the bulk diffusion coefficient and tortuosity. Laboratory experiments on glass beads packs with the beads diameter ranging from 50 μm to 500 μm are used to validate the new method. The extracted diffusion parameters are consistent with their known values and the determined surface relaxivity ρ2 agrees with the expected value within ±7%. This method is further successfully applied on a Berea sandstone core and yields surface relaxivity ρ2 consistent with the literature.

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a powerful tool to probe into geological materials such as hydrocarbon reservoir rocks and groundwater aquifers. It is unique in its ability to obtain in situ the fluid type and the pore size distributions (PSD). The T1 and T2 relaxation times are closely related to the pore geometry through the parameter called surface relaxivity. This parameter is critical for converting the relaxation time distribution into the PSD and so is key to accurately predicting permeability. The conventional way to determine the surface relaxivity ρ2 had required independent laboratory measurements of the pore size. Recently Zielinski et al. proposed a restricted diffusion model to extract the surface relaxivity from the NMR diffusion-T2 relaxation (DT2) measurement. Although this method significantly improved the ability to directly extract surface relaxivity from a pure NMR measurement, there are inconsistencies with their model and it relies on a number of preset parameters. Here we propose an improved signal model to incorporate a scalable LT and extend their method to extract the surface relaxivity based on analyzing multiple DT2 maps with varied diffusion observation time. With multiple diffusion observation times, the apparent diffusion coefficient correctly describes the restricted diffusion behavior in samples with wide PSDs, and the new method does not require predetermined parameters, such as the bulk diffusion coefficient and tortuosity. Laboratory experiments on glass beads packs with the beads diameter ranging from 50 μm to 500 μm are used to validate the new method. The extracted diffusion parameters are consistent with their known values and the determined surface relaxivity ρ2 agrees with the expected value within ±7%. This method is further successfully applied on a Berea sandstone core and yields surface relaxivity ρ2 consistent with the literature.

We compare measurements of the Brownian relaxation response of magnetic nanobeads in suspension using planar Hall effect sensors of cross geometry and a newly proposed bridge geometry. We find that the bridge sensor yields six times as large signals as the cross sensor, which results in a more accurate determination of the hydrodynamic size of the magnetic nanobeads. Finally, the bridge sensor has successfully been used to measure the change in dynamic magnetic response when rolling circle amplified DNA molecules are bound to the magnetic nanobeads. The change is validated by measurementsperformed in a commercial AC susceptometer. The presented bridge sensor is, thus, a promising component in future lab-on-a-chip biosensors for detection of clinically relevant analytes, including bacterial genomic DNA and proteins.

Accurate measures of performance are important for assessing competitive athletes in practi~al and research settings. We present here a review of rowing performancemeasures, focusing on the errors in these measures and the implications for testing rowers. The yardstick for assessing error in a performancemeasure is the random variation (typical or standard error of measurement) in an elite athlete's competitive performance from race to race: ∼1.0% for time in 2000 m rowing events. There has been little research interest in on-water time trials for assessing rowing performance, owing to logistic difficulties and environmental perturbations in performance time with such tests. Mobile ergometry via instrumented oars or rowlocks should reduce these problems, but the associated errors have not yet been reported. Measurement of boat speed to monitor on-water training performance is common; one device based on global positioning system (GPS) technology contributes negligible extra random error (0.2%) in speed measured over 2000 m, but extra error is substantial (1-10%) with other GPS devices or with an impeller, especially over shorter distances. The problems with on-water testing have led to widespread use of the Concept II rowing ergometer. The standard error of the estimate of on-water 2000 m time predicted by 2000 m ergometer performance was 2.6% and 7.2% in two studies, reflecting different effects of skill, body mass and environment in on-water versus ergometer performance. However, well trained rowers have a typical error in performance time of only ∼0.5% between repeated 2000 m time trials on this ergometer, so such trials are suitable for tracking changes in physiological performance and factors affecting it. Many researchers have used the 2000 m ergometer performance time as a criterion to identify other predictors of rowing performance. Standard errors of the estimate vary widely between studies even for the same predictor, but the lowest

Liu, Qing; Shi, Chaowei [Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at The Microscale and School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230026 (China); Yu, Lu [Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at The Microscale and School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230026 (China); High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Science, Hefei, Anhui, 230031 (China); Zhang, Longhua [Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at The Microscale and School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230026 (China); Xiong, Ying, E-mail: yxiong73@ustc.edu.cn [Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at The Microscale and School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230026 (China); Tian, Changlin, E-mail: cltian@ustc.edu.cn [Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at The Microscale and School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230026 (China); High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Science, Hefei, Anhui, 230031 (China)

2015-02-13

Internal backbone dynamic motions are essential for different protein functions and occur on a wide range of time scales, from femtoseconds to seconds. Molecular dynamic (MD) simulations and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spin relaxationmeasurements are valuable tools to gain access to fast (nanosecond) internal motions. However, there exist few reports on correlation analysis between MD and NMR relaxation data. Here, backbone relaxationmeasurements of {sup 15}N-labeled SH3 (Src homology 3) domain proteins in aqueous buffer were used to generate general order parameters (S{sup 2}) using a model-free approach. Simultaneously, 80 ns MD simulations of SH3 domain proteins in a defined hydrated box at neutral pH were conducted and the general order parameters (S{sup 2}) were derived from the MD trajectory. Correlation analysis using the Gromos force field indicated that S{sup 2} values from NMR relaxationmeasurements and MD simulations were significantly different. MD simulations were performed on models with different charge states for three histidine residues, and with different water models, which were SPC (simple point charge) water model and SPC/E (extended simple point charge) water model. S{sup 2} parameters from MD simulations with charges for all three histidines and with the SPC/E water model correlated well with S{sup 2} calculated from the experimental NMR relaxationmeasurements, in a site-specific manner. - Highlights: • Correlation analysis between NMR relaxationmeasurements and MD simulations. • General order parameter (S{sup 2}) as common reference between the two methods. • Different protein dynamics with different Histidine charge states in neutral pH. • Different protein dynamics with different water models.

A panoramic borehole camera technology (BCT) and digital image processing method was developed by constructing a system composed of hardware and software. The technology was used for measuring the relaxation zone of surrounding rock with the borehole camera. The hardware consists of a mini CCD camera and a high-pressure sealed magnetic compass that is used for camera positioning. The software includes real-time image monitoring and a processing program that includes the procedure for analysis of the relaxation zone. The roundness of cracks in the boreholes is taken as the index for identifying the relaxation zone. The system was used to measure the relaxation zone of a deep roadway in the Qiwu coal mine of Shandong province. The distribution of the relaxation zone around the roadway was obtained. The results show that the thickness of the broken rock zone varies with the measuring position within a cross section of the roadway. The reliability of the measuring method was tested and verified by comparing the data from BCT with those measured by an ultrasonic method; the difference is less than 3.5%. The system provides a new method for the measurement of the relaxation zone when engineering deep underground. 6 refs., 11 figs., 2 tabs.

The leading indicators of business performance cannot be found in financial data alone. Quality, customer satisfaction, innovation, market share--metrics like these often reflect a company's economic condition and growth prospects better than its reported earnings do. Depending on an accounting department to reveal a company's future will leave it hopelessly mired in the past. More and more managers are changing their company's performancemeasurement systems to track nonfinancial measures and reinforce new competitive strategies. Five activities are essential: developing an information architecture; putting the technology in place to support this architecture; aligning bonuses and other incentives with the new system; drawing on outside resources; and designing an internal process to ensure the other four activities occur. New technologies and more sophisticated databases have made the change to nonfinancial performancemeasurement systems possible and economically feasible. Industry and trade associations, consulting firms, and public accounting firms that already have well-developed methods for assessing market share and other performance metrics can add to the revolution's momentum--as well as profit from the business opportunities it presents. Every company will have its own key measures and distinctive process for implementing the change. But making it happen will always require careful preparation, perseverance, and the conviction of the CEO that it must be carried through. When one leading company can demonstrate the long-term advantage of its superior performance on quality or innovation or any other nonfinancial measure, it will change the rules for all its rivals forever.

Electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy in combination with site-directed spin labeling (SDSL) is a powerful tool for determining protein structure, dynamics and interactions. We report here a method for determining interactions between spin labels and paramagnetic relaxation agents, which is performed under subsaturating conditions. The low microwave-field amplitude employed (h(1)spin-spin-relaxation time, T(2e), is measured by this method, and compared to classical progressive power saturation performed on a free spin label, (1-oxyl-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-Delta(3)-pyrroline-3-methyl)methanethiosulfonate (MTSL), and a spin-labeled protein (Thermomyces lanuginosa lipase, TLL-I252C), employing the water-soluble relaxation agent chromium(III) oxalate (Crox) in concentrations between 0-10 mM. The low-amplitude theory showed excellent agreement with that of classical power saturation in quantifying Crox-induced relaxation enhancement. Low-amplitude measurements were then performed using a standard resonator, with Crox, on 11 spin-labeled TLL mutants displaying rotational correlation times in the motional narrowing regime. All spin-labeled proteins exhibited significant changes in T(2e). We postulate that this novel method is especially suitable for studying moderately immobilized spin labels, such as those positioned at exposed sites in a protein. This method should prove useful for research groups with access to any ESR instrumentation.

Full Text Available Performancemeasurement systems are an extremely important part of the control and management actions, because in this way a company can determine its business potential, its market power, potential and current level of business efficiency. The significance of measurement consists in influencing the relationship between the results of reproduction (total volume of production, value of production, total revenue and profit and investments to achieve these results (factors of production spending and hiring capital in order to achieve the highest possible quality of the economy. (The relationship between the results of reproduction and investment to achieve them quantitatively determines economic success as the quality of the economy. Measuringperformance allows the identification of the economic resources the company has, so looking at the key factors that affect its performance can help to determine the appropriate course of action.

Full Text Available The purpose of this study was to investigate whether listening to relaxing music would help reduce mental fatigue and to maintain performance after a continuous performance task. The experiment involved two fatigue evaluation phases carried out before and after a fatigue inducing phase. A 1-hour AX-continuous performance test was used to induce mental fatigue in the fatigue-inducing phase, and participants' subjective evaluation on the mental fatigue, as well as their neurobehavioral performance in a Go/NoGo task, were measured before and after the fatigue-inducing phase. A total of 36 undergraduate students (18-22 years participated in the study and were randomly assigned to the music group and control group. The music group performed the fatigue-inducing task while listening to relaxing music, and the control group performed the same task without any music. Our results revealed that after the fatigue-inducing phase, (a the music group demonstrated significantly less mental fatigue than control group, (b reaction time significantly increased for the control group but not for the music group, (c larger Go-P3 and NoGo-P3 amplitudes were observed in the music group, although larger NoGo-N2 amplitudes were detected for both groups. These results combined to suggest that listening to relaxing music alleviated the mental fatigue associated with performing an enduring cognitive-motor task.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether listening to relaxing music would help reduce mental fatigue and to maintain performance after a continuous performance task. The experiment involved two fatigue evaluation phases carried out before and after a fatigue inducing phase. A 1-hour AX-continuous performance test was used to induce mental fatigue in the fatigue-inducing phase, and participants' subjective evaluation on the mental fatigue, as well as their neurobehavioral performance in a Go/NoGo task, were measured before and after the fatigue-inducing phase. A total of 36 undergraduate students (18-22 years) participated in the study and were randomly assigned to the music group and control group. The music group performed the fatigue-inducing task while listening to relaxing music, and the control group performed the same task without any music. Our results revealed that after the fatigue-inducing phase, (a) the music group demonstrated significantly less mental fatigue than control group, (b) reaction time significantly increased for the control group but not for the music group, (c) larger Go-P3 and NoGo-P3 amplitudes were observed in the music group, although larger NoGo-N2 amplitudes were detected for both groups. These results combined to suggest that listening to relaxing music alleviated the mental fatigue associated with performing an enduring cognitive-motor task.

This paper proposes empirical approaches to testing the reliability, validity, and organizational effectiveness of student evaluations of teaching (SET) as a performancemeasurement instrument in knowledge management at the institutional level of universities. Departing from Weber’s concept...... of bureaucracy and critical responses to this concept, we discuss how contemporary SET are used as an instrument of organizational control at Danish universities. A discussion of the current state of performancemeasurement within the frame of new public management (NPM) and its impact on knowledge creation......, it can be investigated if SET actually contribute to teaching improvement by examining how the instrument is integrated into systematic ex-ante and ex-post organizational management. It is expected to find discrepancy between the proponents’ intent to evaluate teaching and the way the performance...

We present a simple `click-on' fluidic system with integrated electrical contacts, which is suited for electrical measurements on chips in microfluidic systems. We show that microscopic magnetic field sensors based on the planar Hall effect can be used for detecting the complex magnetic response using only the self-field arising from the bias current applied to the sensors as excitation field. We present measurements on a suspension of magnetic beads with a nominal diameter of 250 nm vs. temperature and find that the observations are consistent with the Cole-Cole model for Brownian relaxation with a constant hydrodynamic bead diameter when the temperature dependence of the viscosity of water is taken into account. These measurements demonstrate the feasibility of performingmeasurements of the Brownian relaxation response in a lab-on-a-chip system and constitute the first step towards an integrated biosensor based on the detection of the dynamic response of magnetic beads.

We present a simple 'click-on' fluidic system with integrated electrical contacts, which is suited for electrical measurements on chips in microfluidic systems. We show that microscopic magnetic field sensors based on the planar Hall effect can be used for detecting the complex magnetic response...... with a constant hydrodynamic bead diameter when the temperature dependence of the viscosity of water is taken into account. These measurements demonstrate the feasibility of performingmeasurements of the Brownian relaxation response in a lab-on-a-chip system and constitute the first step towards an integrated...... using only the self-field arising from the bias current applied to the sensors as excitation field. We present measurements on a suspension of magnetic beads with a nominal diameter of 250 nm vs. temperature and find that the observations are consistent with the Cole-Cole model for Brownian relaxation...

Operations which form new risk measures from a collection of given (often simpler) risk measures have been used extensively in the literature. Examples include convex combination, convolution, and the worst-case operator. Here we study the risk measure that is constructed from a family of given risk

magnetic fields are needed. First, the method is demonstrated on Brownian relaxationmeasurements of beads with nominal sizes of 40, 80, 130, and 250 nm. The results are found to compare well to those obtained by an already established measurement technique in the frequency domain. Next, we demonstrate......We present and demonstrate a new method for on-chip Brownian relaxationmeasurements on magnetic nanobeads in the time domain using magnetoresistive sensors. The beads are being magnetized by the sensor self-field arising from the bias current passed through the sensors and thus no external...... the time and frequency domain methods on Brownian relaxation detection of clustering of streptavidin coated magnetic beads in the presence of different concentrations of biotin-conjugated bovine serum albumin and obtain comparable results. In the time domain, a measurement is carried out in less than 30 s...

Set in the airport industry, this paper measures firm performance using both desirable and bad outputs (i.e. airport delays). We first estimate a model that does not include the bad outputs and then a model that includes bad outputs. The results show important differences in the efficiency...... and productivity results depending on whether bad outputs are or are not included in the model. The differences reflect the resource cost to society and the potential cost to an airport if such externalities were internalized. Finally, the paper provides measures of shadow prices for the bad output, in our case...

A micro-indenter consisting of a piezo-electric driven flat cylindrical punch has been used to measure the dynamic mechanical properties of polystyrene films as thin as 50 μm. The measured viscoelastic response was sensitive to the bonding of the polystyrene to an underlying silicon substrate for films which were thinner than one indenter diameter. The instrument therefore was shown to have practical use in measuring the dynamic mechanical response of polymer films, and the strength of bonding between disparate materials.

{sup 1}H-NMR cross-relaxation rates and nonselective longitudinal relaxation times have been obtained at two magnetic fields (7.0 and 11.8 T) and at a variety of temperatures for the branched tetrasaccharide methyl 3-O-{alpha}-N-acetyl-galactosaminyl-{beta}-galactopyranosyl-(1{sup {yields}}4)[3-O-{alpha}-fucosyl] -glucopyranoside (1), an inhibitor of astrocyte growth. In addition, {sup 13}C-NMR relaxation data have also been recorded at both fields. The {sup 1}H-NMR relaxation data have been interpreted using different motional models to obtain proton-proton correlation times. The results indicate that the GalNAc and Fuc rings display more extensive local motion than the two inner Glc and Gal moieties, since those present significantly shorter local correlation times. The{sup 13}C-NMR relaxation parameters have been interpreted in terms of the Lipari-Szabo model-free approach. Thus, order parameters and internal motion correlation times have been deduced. As obtained for the{sup 1}H-NMR relaxation data, the two outer residues possess smaller order parameters than the two inner rings. Internal correlation times are in the order of 100 ps. The hydroxymethyl groups have also different behaviour,with the exocyclic carbon on the glucopyranoside unit showing the highestS{sup 2}. Molecular dynamics simulations using a solvated system have also been performed and internal motion correlation functions have been deduced from these calculations. Order parameters and interproton distances have been compared to those inferred from the NMR measurements. The obtained results are in fair agreement with the experimental data.

This study tested the hypothesis that relaxation by guided imagery improves working-memory performance of healthy participants. 30 volunteers (both sexes, ages 17-56 years) were randomly assigned to one of three groups and administered the WAIS-III Letter-Number Sequencing Test before and after 10-min. treatment with guided imagery or popular music. The control group received no treatment. Groups' test scores were not different before treatment. The mean increased after relaxation by guided imagery but not after music or no treatment. This result supports the hypothesis that working-memory scores on the test are enhanced by guided imagery and implies that human information processing may be enhanced by prior relaxation.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an anxiety disorder with lifetime prevalence of 7.8%, is characterized by symptoms that develop following exposure to traumatic life events and that cause an immediate experience of intense fear, helplessness or horror. PTSD is marked by recurrent nightmares typified by the recall of intrusive experiences and by extended disturbance throughout sleep. Individuals with PTSD respond poorly to drug treatments for insomnia. The disadvantages of drug treatment for insomnia underline the importance of non-pharmacological alternatives. Thus, the present study had three aims: first, to compare the efficiency of two relaxation techniques (muscular relaxation and progressive music relaxation) in alleviating insomnia among individuals with PTSD using both objective and subjective measures of sleep quality; second, to examine whether these two techniques have different effects on psychological indicators of PTSD, such as depression and anxiety; and finally, to examine how initial PTSD symptom severity and baseline emotional measures are related to the efficiency of these two relaxation methods. Thirteen PTSD patients with no other major psychiatric or neurological disorders participated in the study. The study comprised one seven-day running-in, no-treatment period, followed by two seven-day experimental periods. The treatments constituted either music relaxation or muscle relaxation techniques at desired bedtime. These treatments were randomly assigned. During each of these three experimental periods, subjects' sleep was continuously monitored with a wrist actigraph (Ambulatory Monitoring, Inc.), and subjects were asked to fill out several questionnaires concerned with a wide spectrum of issues, such as sleep, depression, and anxiety. Analyses revealed a significant increase in objective and subjective sleep efficiency and a significant reduction in depression level following music relaxation. Moreover, following music relaxation, a highly

Full Text Available Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD, an anxiety disorder with lifetime prevalence of 7.8%, is characterized by symptoms that develop following exposure to traumatic life events and that cause an immediate experience of intense fear, helplessness or horror. PTSD is marked by recurrent nightmares typified by the recall of intrusive experiences and by extended disturbance throughout sleep. Individuals with PTSD respond poorly to drug treatments for insomnia. The disadvantages of drug treatment for insomnia underline the importance of non-pharmacological alternatives. Thus, the present study had three aims: first, to compare the efficiency of two relaxation techniques (muscular relaxation and progressive music relaxation in alleviating insomnia among individuals with PTSD using both objective and subjective measures of sleep quality; second, to examine whether these two techniques have different effects on psychological indicators of PTSD, such as depression and anxiety; and finally, to examine how initial PTSD symptom severity and baseline emotional measures are related to the efficiency of these two relaxation methods. Thirteen PTSD patients with no other major psychiatric or neurological disorders participated in the study. The study comprised one seven-day running-in, no-treatment period, followed by two seven-day experimental periods. The treatments constituted either music relaxation or muscle relaxation techniques at desired bedtime. These treatments were randomly assigned. During each of these three experimental periods, subjects’ sleep was continuously monitored with a wrist actigraph (Ambulatory Monitoring, Inc., and subjects were asked to fill out several questionnaires concerned with a wide spectrum of issues, such as sleep, depression, and anxiety. Analyses revealed a significant increase in objective and subjective sleep efficiency and a significant reduction in depression level following music relaxation. Moreover, following music

and legitimation forms the basis for proposing four steps of investigation. The suggested mixed-methods approach comprises the following: first, thematic analysis can serve as a tool to evaluate the legitimacy discourse as initiated by official SET affirmative documents by government, university, and students......, it can be investigated if SET actually contribute to teaching improvement by examining how the instrument is integrated into systematic ex-ante and ex-post organizational management. It is expected to find discrepancy between the proponents’ intent to evaluate teaching and the way the performance......This paper proposes empirical approaches to testing the reliability, validity, and organizational effectiveness of student evaluations of teaching (SET) as a performancemeasurement instrument in knowledge management at the institutional level of universities. Departing from Weber’s concept...

Recent interest in the permeability of cement paste, mortars, and concrete lies in the need to gain further understanding of mechanisms affecting the durability of these materials. Conventional techniques for measuring permeability are cumbersome and often take days to complete just one measurement. This thesis proposes a new technique for measuring the permeability. The advantage of this technique is that the results are obtained in a few minutes to a few hours; moreover, there is no problem with leaks or need for high pressures. The method is particularly well suited for examining the changes in permeability and viscoelastic properties of young cement paste samples. When a saturated rod of a porous material is instantaneously deflected under three-point bending, two types of relaxation processes occur simultaneously: hydrodynamic relaxation, caused by the flow of liquid in the porous body to restore ambient pressure, and viscoelastic relaxation of the solid network. By measuring the decrease in the force required to sustain a constant deflection, it is possible to obtain the permeability and Young's modulus from the hydrodynamic relaxation function, in addition to the stress relaxation function of the sample. The exact viscoelastic solution is developed and the total relaxation is shown to be very closely approximated as the product of the hydrodynamic and stress relaxation functions. The analytical results are verified on porous VycorRTM glass saturated in various solvents, including normal alcohols, water, and glycerol. The results show excellent agreement with the theory. Consistent with observations of previous workers, the permeability is found to be influenced by the size of the solvent molecule; by assuming that the pore surfaces are covered with a monolayer of immobile solvent, the observed variation can be explained. The evolution of the permeability, Young's modulus, and stress relaxation function are reported for Type III Portland cement paste with

This study was carried out to develop improved methods for measuring in-vivo stress relaxation of growing tissues and to compare relaxation in the stems of four different species. When water uptake by growing tissue is prevented, in-vivo stress relaxation occurs because continued wall loosening reduces wall stress and cell turgor pressure. With this procedure one may measure the yield threshold for growth (Y), the turgor pressure in excess of the yield threshold (P-Y), and the physiological wall extensibility (phi). Three relaxation techniques proved useful: "turgor-relaxation", "balance-pressure" and "pressure-block". In the turgor-relaxation method, water is withheld from growing tissue and the reduction in turgor is measured directly with the pressure probe. This technique gives absolute values for P and Y, but requires tissue excision. In the balance-pressure technique, the excised growing region is sealed in a pressure chamber, and the subsequent reduction in water potential is measured as the applied pressure needed to return xylem sap to the cut surface. This method is simple, but only measures (P-Y), not the individual values of P and Y. In the pressure-block technique, the growing tissue is sealed into a pressure chamber, growth is monitored continuously, and just sufficient pressure is applied to the chamber to block growth. The method gives high-resolution kinetics of relaxation and does not require tissue excision, but only measures (P-Y). The three methods gave similar results when applied to the growing stems of pea (Pisum sativum L.), cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.), soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) and zucchini (Curcubita pepo L.) seedlings. Values for (P-Y) averaged between 1.4 and 2.7 bar, depending on species. Yield thresholds averaged between 1.3 and 3.0 bar. Compared with the other methods, relaxation by pressure-block was faster and exhibited dynamic changes in wall-yielding properties. The two pressure-chamber methods were also used to measure

This study was carried out to develop improved methods for measuring in-vivo stress relaxation of growing tissues and to compare relaxation in the stems of four different species. When water uptake by growing tissue is prevented, in-vivo stress relaxation occurs because continued wall loosening reduces wall stress and cell turgor pressure. With this procedure one may measure the yield threshold for growth (Y), the turgor pressure in excess of the yield threshold (P-Y), and the physiological wall extensibility (phi). Three relaxation techniques proved useful: "turgor-relaxation", "balance-pressure" and "pressure-block". In the turgor-relaxation method, water is withheld from growing tissue and the reduction in turgor is measured directly with the pressure probe. This technique gives absolute values for P and Y, but requires tissue excision. In the balance-pressure technique, the excised growing region is sealed in a pressure chamber, and the subsequent reduction in water potential is measured as the applied pressure needed to return xylem sap to the cut surface. This method is simple, but only measures (P-Y), not the individual values of P and Y. In the pressure-block technique, the growing tissue is sealed into a pressure chamber, growth is monitored continuously, and just sufficient pressure is applied to the chamber to block growth. The method gives high-resolution kinetics of relaxation and does not require tissue excision, but only measures (P-Y). The three methods gave similar results when applied to the growing stems of pea (Pisum sativum L.), cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.), soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) and zucchini (Curcubita pepo L.) seedlings. Values for (P-Y) averaged between 1.4 and 2.7 bar, depending on species. Yield thresholds averaged between 1.3 and 3.0 bar. Compared with the other methods, relaxation by pressure-block was faster and exhibited dynamic changes in wall-yielding properties. The two pressure-chamber methods were also used to measure

A one-dimensional NMR method is presented for measuring the transverse relaxation time, T2,n, of intermolecular multiple quantum coherences (IMQCs) of coherence order n in highly polarized spin systems. The pulse sequence proposed in this paper effectively suppresses the effects of radiation damping, molecular diffusion, inhomogeneity of magnetic field, and variations of dipolar correlation distance, all of which may affect quantitation of T2,n. This pulse sequence can be used to measure not only IMQC transverse relaxation time T2,n(n ＞ 1) quickly and directly, but also the conventional transverse relaxation time. Experimental results demonstrate that the quantitative relationship between T2,n(n≥1) and T2 is T2,n≈T2/n. These results will be helpful for understanding the fundamental properties and mechanisms of IMQCs.

We report a comparative study on dephasing mechanisms between inner core coated and uncoated sections of the same Kagome hypocycloid-shaped core hollow core photonic crystal fibers (HC-PCF) filled with rubidium vapor. The comparison is performed by measuring the atomic polarization relaxation and electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) linewidth in Rb loaded polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) inner wall coated and bare silica core Kagome HC-PCF. The measurements show a polarization relaxation time of 32μs in a PDMS coated Kagome HC-PCF and 24μs in uncoated Kagome HC-PCF. A minimum EIT linewidth of 6.2±0.8MHz is achieved in PDMS coated Kagome HC-PCF, and 8.3±0.9 MHz for the uncoated Kagome HC-PCF.

To measure 1H relaxation times of cerebral metabolites at 3 T and to investigate regional variations within the brain. Investigations were performed on a 3.0-T clinical whole-body magnetic resonance (MR) system. T2 relaxation times of N-acetyl aspartate (NAA), total creatine (tCr), and choline compounds (Cho) were measured in six brain regions of 42 healthy subjects. T1 relaxation times of these metabolites and of myo-inositol (Ins) were determined in occipital white matter (WM), the frontal lobe, and the motor cortex of 10 subjects. T2 values of all metabolites were markedly reduced with respect to 1.5 T in all investigated regions. T2 of NAA was significantly (P motor cortex (247 +/- 13 msec) than in occipital WM (301 +/- 18 msec). T2 of the tCr methyl resonance showed a corresponding yet less pronounced decrease (162 +/- 16 msec vs. 178 +/- 9 msec, P = 0.021). Even lower T2 values for all metabolites were measured in the basal ganglia. Metabolite T1 relaxation times at 3.0 T were not significantly different from the values at 1.5 T. Transverse relaxation times of the investigated cerebral metabolites exhibit an inverse proportionality to magnetic field strength, and especially T2 of NAA shows distinct regional variations at 3 T. These can be attributed to differences in relative WM/gray matter (GM) contents and to local paramagnetism. Copyright 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

The aim of this study was to assess the effects of sleep hygiene measures combined with relaxation techniques in the management of sleep bruxism (SB) in a double-blind, parallel, controlled, randomised clinical trial design. Sixteen participants (mean ± s.d. age = 39·9 ± 10·8 years) were randomly assigned to a control group (n = 8) or to the experimental treatment group (n = 8). Participants belonging to the latter group were instructed to perform sleep hygiene measures and progressive muscle relaxation techniques for a 4-week period. Two polysomnographic recordings, including bilateral masseter electromyographic activity, were made: one prior to the treatment and the other after the treatment period. The number of bruxism episodes per hour, the number of burst per hour and the bruxism time index (i.e. the percentage of total sleep time spent bruxing) were established as outcome variables. No significant differences could be observed between the outcome measures obtained before and after the 4-week period, neither for the sleep bruxism variables nor for the sleep variables. Within the limitations of this study, it was concluded that there is no effect of sleep hygiene measures together with progressive relaxation techniques on sleep bruxism or sleep over a 4-week observation period.

a Siemens Magnetom wholebody magnetic resonance scanner operating at 1.5 Tesla was used. For comparison six imaging pulse sequences for relaxation time measurements were tested on the same phantom. The spectroscopic pulse sequences all had an accuracy better than 10% of the reference values....

Full Text Available Metals with bcc structure are able to dissolve large amounts of interstitial element atoms in the form of oxygen. These atoms diffuse through the lattice by jumping into octahedral sites with equivalent symmetry, causing strong alterations in the anelastic behavior. This paper reports on a study of Snoek relaxation in Nb-Ti alloys with oxygen in solid solution, based on internal friction as a function of temperature. The internal friction measurements were taken in a torsion pendulum operating at temperatures in the range of 350 to 650 K, with frequencies varying from 6 to 36 Hz. The results show relaxation spectra in which thermally activated relaxation peaks produced by the stress-induced ordering of oxygen atoms around niobium atoms of the metallic matrix were identified.

RIF tumors implanted on mice feet were investigated for changes in relaxation times (T1 and T2) after photodynamic therapy (PDT). Photodynamic therapy was performed using Photofrin II as the photosensitizer and laser light at 630 nm. A home-built proton solenoid coil in the balanced configuration was used to accommodate the tumors, and the relaxation times were measured before, immediately after, and up to several hours after therapy. Several control experiments were performed untreated tumors, tumors treated with Photofrin II alone, or tumors treated with laser light alone. Significant increases in T1s of water protons were observed after PDT treatment. In all experiments, 31P spectra were recorded before and after the therapy to study the tumor status and to confirm the onset of PDT. These studies show significant prolongation of T1s after the PDT treatment. The spin-spin relaxationmeasurements, on the other hand, did not show such prolongation in T2 values after PDT treatment.

Isothermal crystallization of amorphous nifedipine, phenobarbital, and flopropione was studied at temperatures above and below their glass transition temperatures (T(g)). A sharp decrease in the crystallization rate with decreasing temperature was observed for phenobarbital and flopropione, such that no crystallization was observed at temperatures 20-30 degrees C lower than their T(g) within ordinary experimental time periods. In contrast, the crystallization rate of nifedipine decreased moderately with decreasing temperature, and considerable crystallization was observed at 40 degrees C below its T(g) within 4 months. The molecular mobility of these amorphous drugs was assessed by enthalpy relaxation and (1)H-NMR relaxationmeasurements. The enthalpy relaxation time of nifedipine was smaller than that of phenobarbital or flopropinone at the same T - T(g) values, suggesting higher molecular mobility of nifedipine. The spin-lattice relaxation time in the rotating frame (T(1rho)) decreased markedly at temperature above T(g). The slope of the Arrhenius type plot of the T(1rho) for nifedipine protons changed at about 10 degrees C below the T(g), whereas the slope for phenobarbital protons became discontinuous at about 10 degrees C above the T(g). Even at temperatures below its T(g), the spin-spin relaxation process of nifedipine could be described by the sum of its Gaussian relaxation, which is characteristic of solid protons, and its Lorentzian relaxation, which is characteristic of protons with higher mobility. In contrast, no Lorentzian relaxation was observed for phenobarbital or flopropione at temperatures below their T(g). These results also suggest that nifedipine has higher molecular mobility than phenobarbital and flopropione at temperatures below T(g). The faster crystallization of nifedipine than that of phenobarbital or flopropione observed at temperatures below its T(g) may be partly ascribed to its higher molecular mobility at these temperatures.

At audible frequencies, the vibrational relaxation of nitrogen contributes significantly to the absorption of sound in still air. The accurate measurement of the humidity dependence of the relaxation frequency of nitrogen, as yet, has eluded careful measurement due to the difficulty in measuring small absorption at low frequencies. Recently, equipment has been constructed for measuring sound absorption in air as a function of humidity over the frequency range from 4 to 100 kHz. In the experiment described here, the temperature and humidity range of this equipment has been extended so that it can be used to study the relaxation absorption in nitrogen at temperatures from 311 K to 418 K. The results indicate that, over this temperature range, the frequency of maximum absorption in moist nitrogen, f, can be given by f/P = 260 x h, Hz/atm, where h is the percent mole fraction of water, and P is the pressure in atm. To the accuracy of the measurements reported here, f is independent of temperature over the range of temperatures at which the measurements were made.

Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) relaxation dispersion measurements are a valuable tool for the characterization of structural transitions on the micro-millisecond timescale. While the measurement of (15)N relaxation dispersion is now routine, the measurements with alternative nuclei remain limited. Here we report (15)N as well as (1)H R2 relaxation dispersion measurements of the N23PP/S148A "dynamic knockout" mutant of dihydrofolate reductase. The (1)H dispersion measurements are complementary to (15)N data as many additional residues are observed to have dispersive behavior for the (1)H nucleus. Simultaneous fitting of the dispersion profiles for the two nuclei increases the accuracy of exchange parameters determined for individual residues and clustered groups of residues. The different sensitivity of the two nuclei to changes in backbone torsional angles, ring currents, and hydrogen bonding effects provides important insights into the nature of the structural changes that take place during the exchange process. We observe clear evidence of direct and indirect hydrogen bond effects for the (15)N and (1)H chemical shift changes in the active-site, modulation of ring current shielding in the CD-loop and backbone torsional changes in a cluster of residues associated with the C-terminus. This work demonstrates the power of combined (1)H and (15)N probes for the study of backbone dynamics on the micro-millisecond timescale though the analysis of chemical shift changes.

Despite the success of exploiting the properties of amorphous oxide semiconductors for device applications, the charge transport in these materials is still not clearly understood. The observation of a definite Hall voltage suggests that electron transport in the conduction band is free-electron-like. However, the temperature dependence of the Hall and field-effect mobilities cannot be explained using a simple bandlike model. Here, we perform gated Hall effect measurements in field-effect transistors, which allow us to make two independent estimates of the charge carrier concentration and determine the Hall factor providing information on the energy dependence of the relaxation time. We demonstrate that the Hall factor in a range of sputtered and solution-processed quaternary amorphous oxides, such as a-InGaZnO, is close to two, while in ternary oxides, such as InZnO, it is near unity. This suggests that quaternary elements like Ga act as strong ionized impurity scattering centers in these materials.

Relaxation curves of T/sub 1/ in various tissues of the brain in patients with cerebral tumor and in healthy controls were obtained by saturation-recovery and inversion-recovery methods, whereby T/sub 1/ values were calculated. The results obtained were in good agreement with in vitro measurement results of excised brain tissues. Prolongation of T/sub 1/ values was evidently observed with increasing the strength of static magnetic field.

Performancemeasurements are meant to improve public decision making and organizational performance. But performancemeasurements are far from always rational tools for problem solving, they are also political instruments. The central question addressed in this article is how performance...... measurement affects public policy. The aim is to conceptualize the political consequences of performancemeasurements and of special concern is how performance systems influence how political decisions are made, what kind of political decisions are conceivable, and how they are implemented. The literature...... on the utilization of evaluation and performancemeasurements is applied to analyse how performancemeasurements affect the political process of goal-setting, implementation and learning. The article concludes that performancemeasurements may have intended and unintended effects and they seem to have a retroactive...

In classic agency models, first best efficiency can't be achieved due to the trade-off between risk and incentives except that agency is risk neutral. Whereas if the principal's objective is not contractible,an alternative objective performancemeasurement which is contractible is always proposed. However, if the reaction of this objective performancemeasurement to agency's effort differs from that of the principal's objective, the agent would game performancemeasures, which leads to loss of efficiency, even if agency is risk neutral. By adding subjective weights on objective measures, or combination of subjective performancemeasurement with objective performancemeasurement, efficiency can be regained. Implications for faculty pay are also discussed.

Current theoretical approaches to temperature relaxation, which can be categorized as binary-collision and many-body approaches, disagree. Existing experimental evidence infers a lower relaxation rate compared to the binary-collision approach, but is insufficient to determine which approach is correct. We present the most recent results from an experiment aimed at obtaining the temperature relaxation rate between ions and electrons in a dense, strongly coupled plasma by directly measuring the temperature of each component. The plasma is formed by heating a gas jet with a 10 ps laser pulse. The electrons are preferentially heated by the short pulse laser (Te 100 eV), while the ions, after undergoing very rapid (sub-ps time-scale) disorder-induced heating, should only reach a temperature of 10-15 eV. This results in a strongly coupled ion plasma with an ion-ion coupling parameter γii 3-5. We plan to measure the electron and ion temperatures of the resulting plasma independently during and after heating, using collective Thomson scattering for electrons and a high-resolution x-ray spectrometer for the ions (measuring Doppler-broadened absorption lines).

Magneto-optical relaxationmeasurements of magnetically labelled biomolecules are a promising tool for immunometric analyses. Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and its polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies (anti-CEA) were utilized as a model system for affinity analysis of the interaction between antibody and antigen. For this purpose antibodies were coupled with magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs). Aggregation of these antibody sensors due to interactions with the CEA was observed subsequently by measuring the relaxation time of the birefringence of a transmitted laser beam that occurs in a pulsed magnetic field. A kinetic model of chain-like aggregation developed for these purposes enables the rapid and simple calculation of the kinetic parameters of the underlying protein interaction. From the known antigen concentration and the increase in particle size during the interaction we are able to estimate the unknown parameters with standard methods for the statistical description of stepwise polymerization. This novel affinity analysis was successfully applied for the antigen-antibody interaction described herein and can be applied to other biomolecular interactions. First efforts have been made to establish magneto-optical relaxationmeasurements in body fluids.

The effects of strain relaxation of AlGaN barrier layer on the conduction band profile, electron concentration and two-dimensional gas (2DEG) sheet charge density in a high Al-content AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) are calculated by self-consistently solving Poisson's and Schr(o)dinger's equations. The effect of strain relaxation on dc I-V characteristics of AlxGa1-xN/GaN HEMT is obtained by developing a nonlinear charge-control model that describes the accurate relation of 2DEG sheet charge density and gate voltage. The model predicts a highest 2DEG sheet charge density of 2.42×1013 cm-2 and maximum saturation current of 2482.8 mA/mm at a gate bias of 2 V for 0.7 μm Al0.50Ga0.50N/GaN HEMT with strain relaxation r =0 and 1.49×1013 cm-2 and 1149.7 mA/mm with strain relaxation r =1. The comparison between simulations and physical measurements shows a good agreement. Results show that the effect of strain relaxation must be considered when analyzing the characteristics of high Al-content AlGaN/GaN HEMT theoretically, and the performance of the devices is improved by decreasing the strain relaxation of AlGaN barrier layer.

Full Text Available According to the logics of the efficient capital investment, the management of the investment of the saving capital in the company’s assets must conclude, on the end of the financial year, with a plus of real value (NPV > 0. From this point of view, in this paper we suggest the usage of an investment valuation model for the assessment of the company managerial and technological performance. Supposing the book value is a proxy of the just value (of assets and operational results and supposing the capital cost is correctly estimated, we evaluate the company’s performance both by the net present value model, and also by the company’s ability to create a surplus of the invested capital (NPV >0. Our paper also aims to identify the performance of the financial breakeven point (for which NPV is at least equal to zero as the minimum acceptable level for the company’s activity. Under this critical sales point, the company goes through the undervaluation of shareholders fortune even if the company’s sales are greater than accounting breakeven point. The performance’s activity level is one which the managers recover and surpass the cost of capital, cost which stand for the normal activity benchmark. The risks of applying of our suggested model we support go down to the confidence of accounting data and of the cost of capital estimating. In spite all of this, the usage of a sensitivity analysis to search an average NPV would leads to the company’s performance valuation within investment logic with a high information power.

Full Text Available According to the logics of the efficient capital investment, the management of the investment of the saving capital in the company’s assets must conclude, on the end of the financial year, with a plus ofreal value (NPV > 0. From this point of view, in this paper we suggest the usage of an investment valuationmodel for the assessment of the company managerial and technological performance. Supposing the book value is a proxy of the just value (of assets and operational results and supposing the capital cost iscorrectly estimated, we evaluate the company’s performance both by the net present value model, and also by the company’s ability to create a surplus of the invested capital (NPV >0.Our paper also aims to identify the performance of the financial breakeven point (for which NPV is at least equal to zero as the minimum acceptable level for the company’s activity. Under this critical sales point, the company goes through the undervaluation of shareholders fortune even if the company’s sales are greater than accounting breakeven point. The performance’s activity level is one which the managers recover and surpass the cost of capital, cost which stand for the normal activity benchmark.The risks of applying of our suggested model we support go down to the confidence of accounting data and of the cost of capital estimating. In spite all of this, the usage of a sensitivity analysis to search anaverage NPV would leads to the company’s performance valuation within investment logic with a high information power.

Diurnal changes in percentage loss of hydraulic conductivity (PLC), with recorded values being higher at midday than on the following morning, have been interpreted as evidence for the occurrence of cycles of xylem conduits' embolism and repair. Recent reports have suggested that diurnal PLC changes might arise as a consequence of an experimental artefact, that is, air entry into xylem conduits upon cutting stems, even if under water, while under substantial tension generated by transpiration. Rehydration procedures prior to hydraulic measurements have been recommended to avoid this artefact. In the present study, we show that xylem rehydration prior to hydraulic measurements might favour xylem refilling and embolism repair, thus leading to PLC values erroneously lower than those actually experienced by transpiring plants. When xylem tension relaxation procedures were performed on stems where refilling mechanisms had been previously inhibited by mechanical (girdling) or chemical (orthovanadate) treatment, PLC values measured in stems cut under native tension were the same as those measured after sample rehydration/relaxation. Our data call for renewed attention to the procedures of sample collection in the field and transport to the laboratory, and suggest that girdling might be a recommendable treatment prior to sample collection for PLC measurements.

Full Text Available The fate of anthropogenic emissions of mercury (Hg to the atmosphere is influenced by the exchange of elemental Hg with the earth surface. This exchange which holds the key to a better understanding of Hg cycling from local to global scales has been difficult to quantify. To advance and facilitate research about land–atmosphere Hg interactions, we developed a dual-intake, single analyzer Relaxed Eddy Accumulation (REA system. REA is an established technique for measuring turbulent fluxes of trace gases and aerosol particles in the atmospheric surface layer. Accurate determination of gaseous elemental mercury (GEM fluxes has proven difficult to technical challenges presented by extremely small concentration differences (typically −3 between updrafts and downdrafts. To address this we present an advanced REA design that uses two inlets and two pair of gold cartridges for semi-continuous monitoring of GEM fluxes. They are then analyzed sequentially on the same detector while another pair of gold cartridges takes over the sample collection. We also added a reference gas module for repeated quality-control measurements. To demonstrate the system performance, we present results from field campaigns in two contrasting environments: an urban setting with a heterogeneous fetch and a boreal mire during snow-melt. The observed emission rates were 15 and 3 ng m−2 h−1. We claim that this dual-inlet, single detector approach is a significant development of the REA system for ultra-trace gases and can help to advance our understanding of long-term land–atmosphere GEM exchange.

(15)N longitudinal relaxation rates are extensively used for the characterization of protein dynamics; however, their accurate measurement is hindered by systematic errors. (15)N CSA/(1)H-(15)N dipolar cross-correlated relaxation (CC) and amide proton exchange saturation transfer from water protons are the two main sources of systematic errors in the determination of (15)N R1 rates through (1)H-(15)N HSQC-based experiments. CC is usually suppressed through a train of 180° proton pulses applied during the variable (15)N relaxation period (T), which can perturb water magnetization. Thus CC cancellation is required in such a way as to minimize water saturation effects. Here we examined the level of water saturation during the T period caused by various types of inversion proton pulses to suppress CC: (I) amide-selective IBURP-2; (II) cosine-modulated IBURP-2; (III) Watergate-like blocks; and (IV) non-selective hard. We additionally demonstrate the effect of uncontrolled saturation of aliphatic protons on (15)N R1 rates. In this paper we present an optimized pulse sequence that takes into account the crucial effect of controlling also the saturation of the aliphatic protons during (15)N R1 measurements in non-deuterated proteins. We show that using cosine-modulated IBURP-2 pulses spaced 40 ms to cancel CC in this optimized pulse program is the method of choice to minimize systematic errors coming from water and aliphatic protons saturation effects.

Full Text Available The aim of the present study is to examine and evaluate the evolving character of sustainability management in corporations, the significance of environmental protection and sustainability, and barriers to carrying out an incorporated and strategic firm-wide advance of social responsibility. In the present paper, we focus on the contribution of sustainability undertakings towards enhancing corporate performance, the financial involvements of sustainability position and operation, and the chief function of values in corporate policy. Our paper contributes to the literature by supplying proof of elements that lead to the triumph of business patterns for sustainable development, processes through which stakeholders are affecting corporate sustainability conduct, and the link between economic growth and the environment.

Study of the vibrational relaxation characteristics of shock-heated CO2 using a tuned CO2 laser absorption technique. Absorption-coefficient histories were obtained for a single rotational state in each of the -10 0- and -02 0- levels over the temperature range from 500 to 2000 K, and for 21 rotational states of the -10 0- level at 1000 K. These histories have been combined with translational-rotational temperature histories based on interferometer measurements to calculate vibrational relaxation times for the bending mode. The results verify the mutual equilibrium of the bending and symmetric-stretch modes due to Fermi resonance. The bending mode relaxation times are approximately 10% shorter than predicted from interferometer results using the ratio of specific heats. Furthermore, relaxation times based on measurements of different rotational states at 1000 K show a variation with quantum number J, indicating a possible rotational nonequilibrium during the vibration relaxation process.

We report on the measurement of ground state atomic polarization relaxation tile of Rb vapor confined in five different hypocycloidal core shape Kagome hollow core photonic crystal fibers made with uncoated silica glass. We are able to distinguish between wall-collision and transit-time effects in optical waveguide and deduce the contribution of the atom's dwell time at the core wall surface. In contrast with convetional macroscopic atomic cell configuration, and in agreement with Monte Carlo simulations, the measuredrelaxation times were found to be at least one order of magnitude longer than the limit set by the atom-wall collisional relaxation from thermal atoms. This extended relaxation time is explained by the combination of a stronger contribution of the slow atoms in the atomic polarization build-up, and of the relatively significant contribution of dwell time to the relaxation process of the ground state polarization.

The dynamics of a spin system is usually calculated using the density matrix. However, the usual formulation in terms of the density matrix predicts that the signal will decay to zero, and does not address the stochastic dynamics of individual spins. Spin fluctuations are to be viewed as an intrinsic quantum mechanical property of such systems immersed in random magnetic environments, and are observed as ``spin noise'' in the absence of any radio frequency (RF) excitation. Using stochastic calculus we develop a dynamical theory of spin noise and relaxation whose origins lie in the component spin fluctuations. This entails consideration of random pure states for individual protons, and how these pure states are correctly combined when the density matrix is formulated. Both the lattice and the spins are treated quantum mechanically. Such treatment incorporates both the processes of spin-spin and (finite temperature) spin-lattice relaxation. Our results reveal the intimate connections between spin noise and conventional spin relaxation, in terms of a modified spin density (MSD), distinct from the density matrix, which is necessary to describe non-ensemble averaged properties of spin systems. With the prospect of ultra-fast digitization, the role of spin noise in real time parameter extraction for (NMR) spin systems, and the advantage over standard techniques, is of essential importance, especially for systems containing a small number of spins. In this presentation we outline prospects for harnessing the recent dynamical theory in terms of spin noise measurement, with attention to real time properties.

Brain tumor is one of the prevalent cancers in the world that lead to death. In light of the present information of the properties of gliomas, mathematical models have been developed by scientists to quantify the proliferation and invasion dynamics of glioma. In this study, one-dimensional glioma growth model is considered, and finite difference method is used to discretize the problem. Then, two stationary methods, namely Gauss-Seidel (GS) and Successive Over Relaxation (SOR) are used to solve the governing algebraic system. The performance of the methods are evaluated in terms of number of iteration and computational time. On the basis of performance analysis, SOR method is shown to be more superior compared to GS method.

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxometry and diffusometry are important tools for the characterization of heterogeneous materials and porous media, with applications including medical imaging, food characterization and oil-well logging. These methods can be extremely effective in applications where high-resolution NMR is either unnecessary, impractical, or both, as is the case in the emerging field of portable chemical characterization. Here, we present a proof-of-concept experiment demonstrating the use of high-sensitivity optical magnetometers as detectors for ultra-low-field NMR relaxation and diffusion measurements.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of regular audio-visual relaxation combined with Schultz's autogenic training on: (1) the results of behavioral tests that evaluate work performance during burdensome cognitive tasks (Kraepelin test), (2) changes in classical EEG alpha frequency band, neocortex (frontal, temporal, occipital, parietal), hemisphere (left, right) versus condition (only relaxation 7-12 Hz). Both experimental (EG) and age-and skill-matched control group (CG) consisted of eighteen athletes (ten males and eight females). After 7-month training EG demonstrated changes in the amplitude of mean electrical activity of the EEG alpha bend at rest and an improvement was significantly changing and an improvement in almost all components of Kraepelin test. The same examined variables in CG were unchanged following the period without the intervention. Summing up, combining audio-visual relaxation with autogenic training significantly improves athlete's ability to perform a prolonged mental effort. These changes are accompanied by greater amplitude of waves in alpha band in the state of relax. The results suggest usefulness of relaxation techniques during performance of mentally difficult sports tasks (sports based on speed and stamina, sports games, combat sports) and during relax of athletes.

We describe a quantitative processing method which gives access to the longitudinal and transverse cross-relaxation rates from off-resonance ROESY intensities. This method takes advantage of the dependence of the off-resonance ROESY experiments at any mixing time and any spin-lock angle θ on two relaxation matrices, the longitudinal and the transverse ones. This allows one to take into account multistep magnetization transfers even if the measurements are performed only at one or two mixing times. The ratio of the longitudinal to transverse cross-relaxation rates can then be used as a local indicator of the internal dynamics, without assuming a structure or a model of motion. After validation of this processing method by numerical simulations, it is applied to the analysis of the dynamics of the peptide ranalexin dissolved in pure water and in water/TFE.

The "Triarchic body-pathway relaxation technique" (TBRT) is a form of ancient Chinese mindfulness-based meditation professed to give rise to positive emotions and a specific state of consciousness in which deep relaxation and internalized attention coexist. The purpose of this study was to examine the EEG pattern generated during the practice of this mindfulness exercise, and compare it to music listening which has been shown to induce positive emotions. Nineteen college students (aged 19-22 years) participated in the study. Each participant listened to both the TBRT and music audiotapes while EEG was recorded. The order of presentation was counterbalanced to avoid order effect. Two EEG indicators were used: (1) alpha asymmetry index, an indicator for left-sided anterior activation, as measure of positive emotions, and (2) frontal midline theta activity, as a measure for internalized attention. Increased left-sided activation, a pattern associated with positive emotions, was found during both TBRT exercise and music conditions. However, only TBRT exercise was shown to exhibit greater frontal midline theta power, a pattern associated with internalized attention. These results provided evidence to support that the TBRT gives rise to positive emotional experience, accompanied by focused internalized attention.

The so-called "TSE roadmap" was published by the European Commission on July 15, 2005. The transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) roadmap suggests relaxation of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle and other animal transmissible spongiform encephalopathies measures in the short, medium, and long term. According to the TSE roadmap, "Any relaxation of BSE measures following the scientific assessment should be initiated by an open discussion with all stakeholders and supported by a strong communication strategy" ( European Commission 2005 , 5). Bearing this in mind, a social scientific project was designed to (1) involve different stakeholder groups, governmental risk managers, and their scientific advisors and (2) obtain their perception of the TSE roadmap and of its implications for precautionary consumer protection in five European Union (EU) Member States. This study describes the risk perception and risk management of TSE in Europe as exemplified by the TSE roadmap. The following query guided the international comparative study: How is TSE risk perceived by four interviewed stakeholder groups in five studied countries? The risk perceptions of TSE of risk managers from the ministries in charge in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom, as well as their scientific advisors and stakeholder groups, were determined. The stakeholder groups were from three different areas involved with TSE, including farmers, consumers, and the meat/food industry. The issue to be addressed is roadmapping an adequate instrument for stakeholder involvement and for risk decision making.

We report on the measurement of ground-state atomic polarization relaxation time of Rb vapor confined in five different hypocycloidal core-shape Kagome hollow-core photonic crystal fibers made with uncoated silica glass. We are able to distinguish between wall-collision and transit-time effects in an optical waveguide and deduce the contribution of the atom’s dwell time at the core wall surface. In contrast with conventional macroscopic atomic cell configuration, and in agreement with Monte Carlo simulations, the measuredrelaxation times were found to be at least one order of magnitude longer than the limit set by atom-wall collisional from thermal atoms. This extended relaxation time is explained by the combination of a stronger contribution of the slow atoms in the atomic polarization build-up, and of the relatively significant contribution of dwell time to the relaxation process of the ground state polarization.

With an increasing depth of cover, gas emission control and gas outbursts prevention has become an increasingly important issue in coal mining. Deep multi-seam mining often requires operation in an environment characterised by a high gas content and gas pressure. Control of gas related risks has to be realised during heading and close to the longwall by proper risk assessment and flexible drilling schemes. These cover exploration and relaxation drilling, in-seam drilling for pre-drainage and cross measure drilling for drainage of roof and the floor gas emissions. DMT provides comprehensive solutions based on a scientific background. These solutions are engineered considering their technical feasibility. Hazemag Mining offers a large number of complete machinery including tools systems for the implementation of those solutions. (orig.)

We demonstrate how dynamic magnetic susceptibility measurements (DMS) can be used to estimate the relative contributions of Brownian and Néel relaxation to the dynamic magnetic response of a magnetic fluid, a suspension of magnetic nanoparticles. The method applies to suspensions with particles that respond through Brownian or Néel relaxation and for which the characteristic Brownian and Néel relaxation times are widely separated. First, we illustrate this using magnetic fluids consisting of mixtures of particles that relax solely by the Brownian or Néel mechanisms. Then, it is shown how the same approach can be applied to estimate the relative contributions of Brownian and Néel relaxation in a suspension consisting of particles obtained from a single synthesis and whose size distribution straddles the transition from Néel to Brownian relaxation. - Highlights: • Method to estimate the contributions of the relaxation mechanism to the magnetic response. • Method applies to cases where the Brownian and Néel peaks do not overlap. • The method applies for ferrofluids prepared with as–synthesized particles.

The pinning potential of Bi{sub 2}Sr{sub 2}CaCu{sub 2}O{sub x} with and without electron irradiation has been determined. Single crystals of Bi{sub 2}Sr{sub 2}CaCu{sub 2}O{sub x} were irradiated with 1 MeV electrons at room temperature in a high voltage electron microscope. Magnetic relaxation of the non-irradiated and irradiated crystals was measured with use of a microwave absorption method at T=79 K and magnetic fields, H = 0 - 0.13 T. The relaxation process was described in terms of the pinning potential and its anisotropy to get the following conclusions. (1) The pinning potential of the irradiated crystal is 2.2 times higher than that of the virgin crystal. (2) Isolated point defects, such as vacancies and interstitials provide good pinning centers. (3) The point defects produced by the electron irradiation make the pinning potential anisotropic. (author)

Transverse relaxation rate measurements in magic-angle spinning solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance provide information about molecular motions occurring on nanosecond-to-millisecond (ns-ms) time scales. The measurement of heteronuclear ((13)C, (15)N) relaxation rate constants in the presence of a spin-lock radiofrequency field (R1ρ relaxation) provides access to such motions, and an increasing number of studies involving R1ρ relaxation in proteins have been reported. However, two factors that influence the observed relaxation rate constants have so far been neglected, namely, (1) the role of CSA/dipolar cross-correlated relaxation (CCR) and (2) the impact of fast proton spin flips (i.e., proton spin diffusion and relaxation). We show that CSA/D CCR in R1ρ experiments is measurable and that the CCR rate constant depends on ns-ms motions; it can thus provide insight into dynamics. We find that proton spin diffusion attenuates this CCR due to its decoupling effect on the doublet components. For measurements of dynamics, the use of R1ρ rate constants has practical advantages over the use of CCR rates, and this article reveals factors that have so far been disregarded and which are important for accurate measurements and interpretation.

Typically, protein dynamics involve a complex hierarchy of motions occurring on different time scales between conformations separated by a range of different energy barriers. NMR relaxation can in principle provide a site-specific picture of both the time scales and amplitudes of these motions, but independent relaxation rates sensitive to fluctuations in different time scale ranges are required to obtain a faithful representation of the underlying dynamic complexity. This is especially pertinent for relaxationmeasurements in the solid state, which report on dynamics in a broader window of time scales by more than 3 orders of magnitudes compared to solution NMR relaxation. To aid in unraveling the intricacies of biomolecular dynamics we introduce (13)C spin-lattice relaxation in the rotating frame (R1ρ) as a probe of backbone nanosecond-microsecond motions in proteins in the solid state. We present measurements of (13)C'R1ρ rates in fully protonated crystalline protein GB1 at 600 and 850 MHz (1)H Larmor frequencies and compare them to (13)C'R1, (15)N R1 and R1ρ measured under the same conditions. The addition of carbon relaxation data to the model free analysis of nitrogen relaxation data leads to greatly improved characterization of time scales of protein backbone motions, minimizing the occurrence of fitting artifacts that may be present when (15)N data is used alone. We also discuss how internal motions characterized by different time scales contribute to (15)N and (13)C relaxation rates in the solid state and solution state, leading to fundamental differences between them, as well as phenomena such as underestimation of picosecond-range motions in the solid state and nanosecond-range motions in solution.

Performancemeasurements have made their entry into the world of universities. Every research activity is registered in a database and the output measures form the foundation for managerial decisions. The purpose of this chapter is to investigate the registration practices among researchers...... to the initial registration inscriptions and thus make decisions based on aggregated data that have been cut off from the original phenomena....

Full Text Available The article is devoted to the development of the methodology of measuring pilot performance under real flight conditions. It provides the basic information on a research project realized to obtain new information regarding training and education of pilots. The introduction is focused on the analytical part of the project and the outputs in terms of the current state of the art. Detailed view is cast on the issue of measuring pilot performance under specific conditions of the cockpit or the flight simulator. The article is zooming in on the two selected and developed methods of pilot performance in terms of the defined indicators evaluated, conditions of compliance for conducting research and procedures of the methodology of pilot performancemeasurements.

The rates of longitudinal relaxation for ligand nuclei in four isostructural series of lanthanide(III) complexes have been measured by solution state NMR at 295 K at five magnetic fields in the range 4.7-16.5 T. The electronic relaxation time T(le) is a function of both the lanthanide ion and the local ligand field. It needs to be considered when relaxation probes for magnetic resonance applications are devised because it affects the nuclear relaxation, especially over the field range 0.5 to 4.7 T. Analysis of the data, based on Bloch-Redfield-Wangsness theory describing the paramagnetic enhancement of the nuclear relaxation rate has allowed reliable estimates of electronic relaxation times, T(1e), to be obtained using global minimization methods. Values were found in the range 0.10-0.63 ps, consistent with fluctuations in the transient ligand field induced by solvent collision. A refined theoretical model for lanthanide electronic relaxation beyond the Redfield approximation is introduced, which accounts for the magnitude of the ligand field coefficients of order 2, 4, and 6 and their relative contributions to the rate 1/T(le). Despite the considerable variation of these contributions with the nature of the lanthanide ion and its fluctuating ligand field, the theory explains the modest change of measured T(le) values and their remarkable statistical ordering across the lanthanide series. Both experiment and theory indicate that complexes of terbium and dysprosium should most efficiently promote paramagnetic enhancement of the rate of nuclear relaxation.

Recent experiments using innovative optical detectors and techniques have strongly increased the capacity of testing the violation of the Bell's inequalities in Nature. Most of them have used the Eberhard's inequality (EI) to close the "detection" loophole. Closing the "locality" loophole has been attempted by spacelike separated detections and fast changes of the bases of observation, driven by random number generators of new design. Also, pulsed pumping and time-resolved data recording to close the "time-coincidence" loophole, and sophisticated statistical methods to close the "memory" loophole, have been used. In this paper, the meaning of the EI is reviewed. A simple hidden variables theory based on a relaxation of the condition of "measurement independence," which was devised long ago for the Clauser-Horne-Shimony and Holt inequality, is adapted to the EI case. It is used here to evaluate the significance of the results of the recent experiments, which are briefly described. A table summarizes the main results.

Full Text Available The purpose of this paper is to analyze the current state of Process PerformanceMeasurement Systems (PPMS by means of a systematic review of literature. The PPMS literature is reviewed using a systematic approach. Based on an extensive literature review only twelve articles that contain the term PPMS in the title were found. The literature analysis showed that PPMS is a relatively new topic in the area of performancemeasurement. In order to understand PPMS, it was crucial to explain the concepts of business process management, business performancemeasurement and PerformanceMeasurement System (PMS which are well known and used in the literature and practice. PPMS is a special type of PMS that should be used in process-oriented organizations. Limitations of this research lie in the fact that all the conclusions were derived only from the literature, not empirical research. The results presented in the paper continue towards providing an updated overview of the current state of performancemeasurement, especially PPMS in order to identify the existing research gaps on which ongoing and future research efforts regarding this topic can be focused.

Accelerated deformation after major dike intrusion events such the 1975-1985 Krafla events in Iceland and the 1978 Asal-Ghoubbet events in Afar have been interpreted as the result of stress relaxation in a viscoelastic lithospheric mantle and/or continued magma injection. Separating these contributions, estimating mantle viscosity and quantifying the interaction with long-term stretching has however proven difficult in the absence of geodetic measurements early on after the main dike intrusion. In September 2005, a 60km-long dike intrusion took place at the Dabbahu rift, Afar, Ethiopia, at the boundary between the Nubian and Arabian (Danakil) plates. Since this major event, 8 new intrusions have affected the central and southern parts of the 2005 dike. In order to measure post-diking deformation, we installed 19 continuous stations in the near-field of the 2005 intrusion and 20 survey sites in the mid- and far-field. Time series from continuous GPS stations outside of volcanoes show a combination of discrete diking events and quasi-constant velocity displacements. Continuous GPS stations on volcanoes show non-linear behaviour related to the feeding of shallow magma chambers. Survey GPS sites in the far-field (up to 150km from the rift) show current extension rates twice as fast as the secular divergence rate between Nubia and Arabia. We present the GPS results and, with some constraints from seismicity, propose a preliminary model that accounts for the combination of dike intrusions and viscoelastic stress relaxation in the upper mantle below Afar.

Hybrid organic-inorganic perovskite crystals have recently become one of the most important classes of photoactive materials in the solar cell and optoelectronic communities. Albeit improvements have focused on state-of-the-art technology including various fabrication methods, device architectures, and surface passivation, progress is yet to be made in understanding the actual operational temperature on the electronic properties and the device performances. Therefore, the substantial effect of temperature on the optoelectronic properties, charge separation, charge recombination dynamics, and photoconversion efficiency are explored. The results clearly demonstrated a significant enhancement in the carrier mobility, photocurrent, charge carrier lifetime, and solar cell performance in the 60 ± 5 °C temperature range. In this temperature range, perovskite crystal exhibits a highly symmetrical relaxed cubic structure with well-aligned domains that are perpendicular to a principal axis, thereby remarkably improving the device operation. This finding provides a new key variable component and paves the way toward using perovskite crystals in highly efficient photovoltaic cells.

A new method for multi-exponential inversion to NMR T1 and T2 relaxation time distributions is suggested and tested. Inversion results are compared with MAP-II which is based on SVD algorithm and widely accepted in the industry. Inversed NMR relaxation spectra that have different pre-assigned relaxation times from echo trains with different SNR confirm that the new method with 16 to 64 equally spaced time constants in logarithm scale will ensure the relaxation distribution. Testing results show that the new inversion algorithm is a valuable tool for rock core NMR experimental analysis and NMR logging data process and interpretation.

A recent interest in the use of non-invasive geophysical methods to detect the presence of and measure the growth of microbes in the subsurface has arisen due to the potential use of such methods to monitor the progress of bioremediation. Previous research to this end has focused on electrical measurements, such as complex resistivity, which are sensitive to the presence of microbes but can be difficult to interpret. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), an emerging near-surface geophysical method, is sensitive to the presence and physiochemical environment of hydrogen. Typically, NMR measurements in geophysics are used to detect hydrogen in water or hydrocarbons and to determine its pore environment; however, NMR imaging measurements have shown that NMR can also detect hydrogen in microbes. Geophysical NMR measurements thus have the potential to directly detect microbes in geologic material or indirectly detect the way in which the presence of microbes alters the physical and chemical properties of a water-saturated geologic material. This laboratory-scale study was designed to explore the effect of the presence and density of microbes on NMR relaxationmeasurements. Measurements were collected on microbial slurries and microbes in porous media both during microbial growth and on samples with known microbial density. Shewanella oneidensis was used as a representative environmental microbe in this study. The research shows that low field NMR measurements are sensitive to the presence and density of microbes and provides fundamental information required to determine if low-field NMR measurements can be used to monitor microbial growth during bioremediation.

In vivo estimation of relaxation processes in the liver by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may be helpful for characterization of various pathological conditions in the liver. However, such measurements may be significantly hampered by movement of the liver with the respiration. The effect...... of synchronization of data acquisition to the respiratory cycle on measured T1- and T2-relaxation curves was studied in normal subjects, patients with diffuse liver disease, and patients with focal liver pathology. Multi spin echo sequences with five different repetition times were used. The measurements were...... different, when respiratory synchronization was employed. The results indicate that respiratory synchronization is only necessary for estimation of relaxation processes in the liver with focal pathology....

This paper describes a concept for measuring the reproducible performance of mobile manipulators to be used for assembly or other similar tasks. An automatic guided vehicle with an onboard robot arm was programmed to repeatedly move to and stop at a novel, reconfigurable mobile manipulator artifact (RMMA), sense the RMMA, and detect targets on the RMMA. The manipulator moved a laser retroreflective sensor to detect small reflectors that can be reconfigured to measure various manipulator positions and orientations (poses). This paper describes calibration of a multi-camera, motion capture system using a 6 degree-of-freedom metrology bar and then using the camera system as a ground truth measurement device for validation of the reproducible mobile manipulator's experiments and test method. Static performancemeasurement of a mobile manipulator using the RMMA has proved useful for relatively high tolerance pose estimation and other metrics that support standard test method development for indexed and dynamic mobile manipulator applications.

Music students with reactive and adaptive anxieties participated in a musical performance anxiety reduction program. Cue-controlled relaxation (CCR) and cognitive restructuring (CR) were examined separately and in combination in comparison with a standard treatment control condition. The CCR and CR treatments were each effective in reducing state…

Objective: To examine the combined effect of age and timing of augmented feedback on learning muscle relaxation. Performing a gross motor task, subjects had to lower their trapezius muscle activity using the electromyographic signal as visual myofeedback. Design: Healthy subjects (16 young adults:

Music students with reactive and adaptive anxieties participated in a musical performance anxiety reduction program. Cue-controlled relaxation (CCR) and cognitive restructuring (CR) were examined separately and in combination in comparison with a standard treatment control condition. The CCR and CR treatments were each effective in reducing state…

Numerous nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements of spin-lattice relaxation times (T1S) for dilute spins such as 13C have led to investigations of the motional dynamics of individual functional groups in solid materials. In this work, we revisit the Solomon equations and analyze how the heteronuclear cross relaxation between the dilute S (e.g. 13C) and abundant I (e.g. 1H) spins affects the measured T1S values in solid-state NMR in the absence of 1H saturation during the recovery time. It is found theoretically that at the beginning of the S spin magnetization recovery, the existence of non-equilibrium I magnetization introduces the heteronuclear cross relaxation effect onto the recovery of the S spin magnetization and confirmed experimentally that such a heteronuclear cross relaxation effect results in the recovery overshoot phenomena for the dilute spins when T1S is on the same order of T1H, leading to inaccurate measurements of the T1S values. Even when T1S is ten times larger than T1H, the heteronuclear cross relaxation effect on the measured T1S values is still noticeable. Furthermore, this cross relaxation effect on recovery trajectory of the S spins can be manipulated and even suppressed by preparing the initial I and S magnetization, so as to obtain the accurate T1S values. A sample of natural abundance L-isoleucine powder has been used to demonstrate the T1S measurements and their corresponding measured T1C values under various experimental conditions.

The dielectric relaxation times 's and dipole moments 's of the binary () polar liquid mixture of N,N-dimethyl acetamide (DMA) and acetone (Ac) dissolved in benzene (i) are estimated from the measured real ′ and imaginary ″ parts of complex high frequency conductivity * of the solution for different weight fractions 's of 0.0, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7 and 1.0 mole fractions of Ac and temperatures (25, 30, 35 and 40°C) respectively under 9.88 GHz electric field. 's are obtained from the ratio of slopes of ″ - and ′ - curves at → 0 as well as linear slope of ″ - ′ curves of the existing method (Murthy et al, 1989) in order to eliminate polar-polar interaction in the latter case. The calculated 's are in excellent agreement with the reported 's due to Gopalakrishna's method. 's are also estimated from slopes 's of total conductivity - curves at → 0 and the values agree well with the reported 's from G.K. method. The variation of 's and 's with of Ac reveals that solute-solute molecular association occurs within 0.0-0.3 of Ac beyond which solute-solvent molecular association is predicted. The theoretical dipole moments theo's are calculated from bond angles and bond moments to have exact 's only to show the presence of inductive, mesomeric and electromeric effects in the substituent polar groups. The thermodynamic energy parameters are estimated from ln () against 1/ linear curve from Eyring's rate theory to know the molecular dynamics of the system and to establish the fact that the mixture obeys the Debye-Smyth relaxation mechanism.

In the current Internet, there is no clean way for affected parties to react to poor forwarding performance: when a domain violates its Service Level Agreement (SLA) with a contractual partner, the partner must resort to ad-hoc probing-based monitoring to determine the existence and extent of the violation. Instead, we propose a new, systematic approach to the problem of forwarding-performance verification. Our mechanism relies on voluntary reporting, allowing each domain to disclose its loss and delay performance to its neighbors; it does not disclose any information regarding the participating domains' topology or routing policies beyond what is already publicly available. Most importantly, it enables verifiable performancemeasurements, i.e., domains cannot abuse it to significantly exaggerate their performance. Finally, our mechanism is tunable, allowing each participating domain to determine how many resources to devote to it independently (i.e., without any inter-domain coordination), exposing a control...

In situ analysis and study on the surface of nanoparticles (NPs) is a key to obtain their important physicochemical properties for the subsequent applications. Of them, most works focus on the qualitative characterization whereas quantitative analysis and measurement on the NPs under their storage and usage conditions is still a challenge. In order to cope with this challenge, solvation relaxation-based nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technology has been applied to measure the wet specific surface area and, therefore, determine the number of the bound water molecules on the surface of silica NPs in solution and the hydrophilic groups of various types grafted on the surface of the NPs. By changing the surface functional group on silica particles, the fine distinction for the solvent-particle interaction with different surface group can be quantitatively differentiated by measuring the number of water molecules absorbed on the surface. The results show that the number of the surface hydroxyl, amine, and carboxyl group per nm(2) is 4.0, 3.7, and 2.3, respectively, for the silica particles with a diameter of 203 nm. The method reported here is the first attempt to determine in situ the number of bound solvent molecules and any solvophilic groups grafted on nanoparticles.

In structural biology, pulsed field gradient (PFG) NMR spectroscopy for the characterization of size and hydrodynamic parameters of macromolecular solutes has the advantage over other techniques that the measurements can be recorded with identical solution conditions as used for NMR structure determination or for crystallization trials. This paper describes two transverse-relaxation-optimized (TRO) (15)N-filtered PFG stimulated-echo (STE) experiments for studies of macromolecular translational diffusion in solution, (1)H-TRO-STE and (15)N-TRO-STE, which include CRINEPT and TROSY elements. Measurements with mixed micelles of the Escherichia coli outer membrane protein X (OmpX) and the detergent Fos-10 were used for a systematic comparison of (1)H-TRO-STE and (15)N-TRO-STE with conventional (15)N-filtered STE experimental schemes. The results provide an extended platform for evaluating the NMR experiments available for diffusion measurements in structural biology projects involving molecular particles with different size ranges. An initial application of the (15)N-TRO-STE experiment with very long diffusion delays showed that the tedradecamer structure of the 800 kDa Thermus thermophilus chaperonin GroEL is preserved in aqueous solution over the temperature range 25-60 °C.

In structural biology, pulsed field gradient (PFG) NMR for characterization of size and hydrodynamic parameters of macromolecular solutes has the advantage over other techniques that the measurements can be recorded with identical solution conditions as used for NMR structure determination or for crystallization trials. This paper describes two transverse relaxation-optimized (TRO) 15N-filtered PFG stimulated-echo (STE) experiments for studies of macromolecular translational diffusion in solution, 1H-TRO-STE and 15N-TRO-STE, which include CRINEPT and TROSY elements. Measurements with mixed micelles of the Escherichia coli outer membrane protein X (OmpX) and the detergent Fos-10 were used for a systematic comparison of 1H-TRO-STE and 15N-TRO-STE with conventional 15N-filtered STE experimental schemes. The results provide an extended platform for evaluating the NMR experiments available for diffusion measurements in structural biology projects with molecular particles of different size ranges. An initial application of the 15N-TRO-STE experiment with very long diffusion delays showed that the tedradecamer structure of the 800 kDa Thermus thermophilus chaperonin GroEL is preserved in aqueous solution over the temperature range 25–60°C. PMID:21919531

We have measured the spin relaxation time of an excited two-electron spin-triplet state into its singlet ground state in self-assembled InAs/GaAs quantum dots. We use a time-resolved measurement scheme that combines transconductance spectroscopy with spin-to-charge conversion to address the |s ↑,p ↑ 〉 triplet state, where one electron is in the quantum dot s-shell and a second one in the p-shell. The evaluation of the state-selective tunneling times from the dots into a nearby two-dimensional electron gas allows us to determine the s- and p-shell occupation and extract the relaxation time from a rate equation model. A comparably long triplet-to-singlet spin relaxation time of 25 μs is found.

An electronics system has been assembled to measure frequency-dependent response functions of glass-forming liquids in the extremely viscous state approaching the glass transition. We determine response functions such as dielectric permittivity and shear and bulk moduli by measuring electrical impedances of liquid-filled transducers, and this technique requires frequency generators capable of producing signals that are reproducible over the span of several days or even several weeks. To this end, we have constructed a frequency generator that produces low-frequency (1 mHz-100 Hz) sinusoidal signals with voltages that are reproducible within 10 ppm. Two factors that partly account for this precision are that signals originate from voltages stored in a look-up table and that only coil-less filters are used in this unit, which significantly reduces fluctuations of output caused by changes of temperatures of circuits. This generator also includes a special triggering facility that makes it possible to measure up to 512 voltages per cycle that are spaced apart at uniform phase intervals. Fourier transformations of such data yield precise determinations of complex amplitudes of voltages and currents applied to a transducer, which ultimately allows us to determine electrical impedances of transducers with a reproducibility error that is only a few parts per hundred thousand. This equipment is used in tandem with a commercial LCR meter and/or impedance analyzer that give(s) impedance measurements at higher frequencies, up to 1 MHz. The experimental setup allows measurements of the transducer impedance over nine decades of frequency within a single run.

Spin and charge momentum relaxation mechanism has been argued among organic semiconductors with various methods, devices, and materials. However, little is known in organic single-crystalline semiconductors because it has been hard to obtain an ideal organic crystal with an excellent crystallinity and controllability required for accurate measurements. By using more than 1-inch sized single crystals which are fabricated via contentious edge-casting method developed by our group, we have successfully demonstrated a simultaneous determination of spin and momentum relaxation time for gate-induced charges of 3,11-didecyldinaphtho[2,3- d:2',3'- d']benzo[1,2- b:4,5- b']dithiophene, by combining electron spin resonance (ESR) and Hall effect measurements. The obtained temperature dependences of spin and momentum relaxation times are in good agreement in terms of power law with a factor of approximately -2. It is concluded that Elliott-Yafet spin relaxation mechanism can be dominant at room temperature regime (200 - 300 K). Probing characteristic time scales such as spin-lattice, spin-spin, and momentum relaxation times, demonstrated in the present work, would be a powerful tool to elucidate fundamental spin and charge transport mechanisms. We acknowledge the New Energy and Industrial Technology Developing Organization (NEDO) for financial support.

Concurrency levels in large-scale, distributed-memory supercomputers are rising exponentially. Modern machines may contain 100,000 or more microprocessor cores, and the largest of these, IBM's Blue Gene/L, contains over 200,000 cores. Future systems are expected to support millions of concurrent tasks. In this dissertation, we focus on efficient techniques for measuring and analyzing the performance of applications running on very large parallel machines. Tuning the performance of large-scale applications can be a subtle and time-consuming task because application developers must measure and interpret data from many independent processes. While the volume of the raw data scales linearly with the number of tasks in the running system, the number of tasks is growing exponentially, and data for even small systems quickly becomes unmanageable. Transporting performance data from so many processes over a network can perturb application performance and make measurements inaccurate, and storing such data would require a prohibitive amount of space. Moreover, even if it were stored, analyzing the data would be extremely time-consuming. In this dissertation, we present novel methods for reducing performance data volume. The first draws on multi-scale wavelet techniques from signal processing to compress systemwide, time-varying load-balance data. The second uses statistical sampling to select a small subset of running processes to generate low-volume traces. A third approach combines sampling and wavelet compression to stratify performance data adaptively at run-time and to reduce further the cost of sampled tracing. We have integrated these approaches into Libra, a toolset for scalable load-balance analysis. We present Libra and show how it can be used to analyze data from large scientific applications scalably.

Full Text Available The intramolecular fluorescence self-quenching phenomenon is a major drawback in developing high-performance fluorometric biosensors which use common fluorophores as signal generators. We propose two strategies involving liberation of the fluorescent molecules by means of enzymatic fragmentation of protein or dehybridization of double-stranded DNA. In the former, bovine serum albumin (BSA was coupled with the fluorescent BODIPY dye (Red BSA, and then immobilized on a solid surface. When the insolubilized Red BSA was treated with proteinase K (10 units/mL for 30 min, the fluorescent signal was significantly increased (3.5-fold compared to the untreated control. In the second case, fluorophore-tagged DNA probes were linked to gold nanoparticles by hybridization with capture DNA strands densely immobilized on the surface. The quenched fluorescence signal was recovered (3.7-fold by thermal dehybridization, which was induced with light of a specific wavelength (e.g., 530 nm for less than 1 min. We next applied the Red BSA self-quenching relaxation technique employing enzymatic fragmentation to a high-performance immunoassay of cardiac troponin I (cTnI in a microtiter plate format. The detection limit was 0.19 ng/mL cTnI, and the fluorescent signal was enhanced approximately 4.1-fold compared with the conventional method of direct measurement of the fluorescent signal from a non-fragmented fluorophore-labeled antibody.

In the nonlocal spin valve (NLSV) geometry, four-terminal electrical Hanle effect measurements have the potential to provide a particularly simple determination of the lifetime (τs) and diffusion length (λN) of spins injected into nonmagnetic (N) materials. Recent papers, however, have demonstrated that traditional models typically used to fit such data provide an inaccurate measurement of τs in ferromagnet (FM)/N metal devices with low interface resistance, particularly when the separation of the source and detector contacts is small. In the transparent limit, this shortcoming is due to the back diffusion and subsequent relaxation of spins within the FM contacts, which is not properly accounted for in standard models of the Hanle effect. Here we have used the separation dependence of the spin accumulation signal in NLSVs with multiple FM/N combinations, and interfaces in the diffusive limit, to determine λN in traditional spin valve measurements. We then compare these results to Hanle measurements as analyzed using models that either include or exclude spin sinking. We demonstrate that differences between the spin valve and Hanle measurements of λN can be quantitatively modelled provided that both the FM contact-induced isotropic spin sinking and the full three-dimensional geometry of the devices, which is particularly important at small contact separations, are accounted for. We find, however, that considerable difficulties persist, in particular due to the sensitivity of fitting to the contact interface resistance and the FM contact magnetization rotation, in precisely determining λN with the Hanle technique alone, particularly at small contact separations.

Full Text Available A relaxed eddy accumulation (REA system combined with a nitrous acid (HONO analyzer was developed to measure atmospheric HONO vertical fluxes. The system consists of three major components: (1 a fast-response sonic anemometer measuring both vertical wind velocity and air temperature, (2 a fast-response controlling unit separating air motions into updraft and downdraft samplers by the sign of vertical wind velocity, and (3 a highly sensitive HONO analyzer based on aqueous long path absorption photometry that measures HONO concentrations in the updrafts and downdrafts. A dynamic velocity threshold (±0.5σw, where σw is a standard deviation of the vertical wind velocity was used for valve switching determined by the running means and standard deviations of the vertical wind velocity. Using measured temperature as a tracer and the average values from two field deployments, the flux proportionality coefficient, β, was determined to be 0.42 ± 0.02, in good agreement with the theoretical estimation. The REA system was deployed in two ground-based field studies. In the California Research at the Nexus of Air Quality and Climate Change (CalNex study in Bakersfield, California in summer 2010, measured HONO fluxes appeared to be upward during the day and were close to zero at night. The upward HONO flux was highly correlated to the product of NO2 and solar radiation. During the Biosphere Effects on Aerosols and Photochemistry Experiment (BEARPEX 2009 at Blodgett Forest, California in July 2009, the overall HONO fluxes were small in magnitude and were close to zero. Causes for the different HONO fluxes in the two different environments are briefly discussed.

We discuss here the nature of the low-temperature magnetic relaxation in samples of magnetic nanoparticles. In addition to usual magnetic viscosity measurement, we have used the residual memory ratio (RMR) method. This procedure enables us to overcome the uncertainties usually associated with the energy barrier distribution, thus giving a more detailed insight on the nature of the observed dynamics. A custom-made apparatus coupling dilution refrigeration and SQUID magnetometry allowed measurements of very diluted samples at temperatures ranging between 60 mK and 7 K. Two types of particles have been studied: {gamma}-Fe{sub 2}O{sub 3} of moderate anisotropy, and CoFe{sub 2}O{sub 4} of higher anisotropy where quantum effects are more likely to occur. In both cases, the data cannot simply be interpreted in terms of mere thermally activated dynamics of independent particles. The deviation from thermal activation seems to go opposite of what is expected from the possible effect of particle interactions. We therefore believe that it suggests the occurrence of quantum dynamics at very low temperatures.

Paramagnetic relaxation enhancement (PRE) is a widely used approach for measuring long-range distance constraints in biomolecular solution NMR spectroscopy. In this paper, we show that (31)P PRE solid-state NMR spectroscopy can be utilized to determine the immersion depth of spin-labeled membrane peptides and proteins. Changes in the (31)P NMR PRE times coupled with modeling studies can be used to describe the spin-label position/amino acid within the lipid bilayer and the corresponding helical tilt. This method provides valuable insight on protein-lipid interactions and membrane protein structural topology. Solid-state (31)P NMR data on the 23 amino acid α-helical nicotinic acetylcholine receptor nAChR M2δ transmembrane domain model peptide followed predicted behavior of (31)P PRE rates of the phospholipid headgroup as the spin-label moves from the membrane surface toward the center of the membrane. Residue 11 showed the smallest changes in (31)P PRE (center of the membrane), while residue 22 shows the largest (31)P PRE change (near the membrane surface), when compared to the diamagnetic control M2δ sample. This PRE SS-NMR technique can be used as a molecular ruler to measure membrane immersion depth.

We discuss here the nature of the low-temperature magnetic relaxation in samples of magnetic nanoparticles. In addition to usual magnetic viscosity measurement, we have used the residual memory ratio (RMR) method. This procedure enables us to overcome the uncertainties usually associated with the energy barrier distribution, thus giving a more detailed insight on the nature of the observed dynamics. A custom-made apparatus coupling dilution refrigeration and SQUID magnetometry allowed measurements of very diluted samples at temperatures ranging between 60 mK and 7 K. Two types of particles have been studied: gamma-Fe sub 2 O sub 3 of moderate anisotropy, and CoFe sub 2 O sub 4 of higher anisotropy where quantum effects are more likely to occur. In both cases, the data cannot simply be interpreted in terms of mere thermally activated dynamics of independent particles. The deviation from thermal activation seems to go opposite of what is expected from the possible effect of particle interactions. We therefore b...

Venous oxygenation (Yv ) is an important index of brain physiology and may be indicative of brain diseases. A T2 -relaxation-under-spin-tagging (TRUST) MRI technique was recently developed to measure Yv . A multisite evaluation of this technique would be an important step toward broader availability and potential clinical utilizations of Yv measures. TRUST MRI was performed on a total of 250 healthy subjects, 125 from the developer's site and 25 each from five other sites. All sites were equipped with a 3 Tesla (T) MRI of the same vendor. The estimated Yv and the standard error (SE) of the estimation εYv were compared across sites. The averaged Yv and εYv across six sites were 61.1% ± 1.4% and 1.3% ± 0.2%, respectively. Multivariate regression analysis showed that the estimated Yv was dependent on age (P = 0.009) but not on performance site. In contrast, the SE of the Yv estimation was site-dependent (P = 0.024) but was less than 1.5%. Further analysis revealed that εYv was positively associated with the amount of subject motion (P

Trade shows is an increasingly important marketing activity to many companies, but current measures of trade show performance do not adequately capture dimensions important to exhibitors. Based on the marketing literature's outcome and behavior-based control system taxonomy, a model is built...... that captures a outcome-based sales dimension and four behavior-based dimensions (i.e. information-gathering, relationship building, image building, and motivation activities). A 16-item instrument is developed for assessing exhibitors perceptions of their trade show performance. The paper presents evidence...

overload. We conclude with some comments on limiting the undesirable consequences of such a move. Points for practitioners Public administrators need to identify and weigh the (human, political and economic) benefits and costs of accountability regimes. While output-focused performancemeasurement regimes......Over the last few decades accountability has accommodated an increasing number of different political, legal and administrative goals. This article focuses on the administrative aspect of accountability and explores the potential perils of a shift from performancemeasurement to learning. While...... to comply with accountability requirements, because of the first point. Third, the costs of compliance are likely to increase because learning requires more participation and dialogue. Fourth, accountability as learning may generate a ‘change for the sake of change’ mentality, creating further government...

The Photovoltaic (PV) Measurements and Performance Branch of the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI) provides comprehensive PV materials, device and component characterization, measurement, fabrication, and modeling research and support for the international PV research community in the context of the U.S. Department of Energy's PV m goals. The progress of the Branch is summarized. The seven technical sections present a succinct overview of the capabilities and accomplishments of each group in the Branch. The Branch is comprised of the following groups; Surface and Interface Analysis, Materials Characterization, Device Development, Electro-Optical Characterization, Cell Performance, Advanced Module Testing and Performance, and Surface and Interface Modification and Stability. The main research projects completed in FY 1989 are highlighted including measurements and tests of PV materials, cells, submodules and modules. The report contains a comprehensive bibliography of the more than 80 branch-originated journal and conference publications which were authored in collaboration with, or in support of, approximately 130 university, industrial, government, and in-house research groups.

The aim of this study was to assess the effects of sleep hygiene measures combined with relaxation techniques in the management of sleep bruxism (SB) in a double-blind, parallel, controlled, randomised clinical trial design. Sixteen participants (mean ± s.d. age = 39·9 ± 10·8 years) were randomly as

The toxicological impact of engineered nanoparticles in environmental or biological milieu is very difficult to predict and control because of the complexity of interactions of nanoparticles with the varied constituents in the suspended media. Nanoparticles are different from their bulk counterparts due to their high surface area-to-volume ratio per unit mass, which plays a vital role in bioavailability of these nanoparticles to its surroundings. This study explores how changes in the spin-spin nuclear relaxation time can be used to gauge the availability of surface area and suspension stability of selected nanoparticles (CuO, ZnO, and SiO2), in a range of simulated media. Spin-spin nuclear relaxation time can be mathematically correlated to wetted surface area, which is well backed up by the data of hydrodynamic size measurements and suspension stability. We monitored the change in spin-spin relaxation time for all the nanoparticles, over a range of concentrations (2.5 -100 ppm) in deionized water and artificial seawater. Selective concentrations of nanoparticle suspensions were subjected for temporal studies over a period of 48 hrs to understand the concept of spin-spin nuclear relaxation time-based reactivity of nanoparticle suspension. The nanoparticles showed high degree of agglomeration, when suspended in artificial seawater. This was captured by a decrease in spin-spin nuclear relaxation time and also an increment in the hydrodynamic size of the nanoparticles.

Data for kinetics of mass uptake from vapor sorption experiments in thin glassy polymer samples are here interpreted in terms of relaxation times for volume dilation. To this result, both models from non-equilibrium thermodynamics and from mechanics of volume relaxation contribute. Different kind of sorption experiments have been considered in order to facilitate the direct comparison between kinetics of solute induced volume dilation and corresponding data from process driven by pressure or temperature jumps.

We present a method for measuring the mean free path and extracting the momentum relaxation time of hot electrons in GaN using the hot electron transistor (HET). In this device, electrons are injected over a high energy emitter barrier into the base where they experience quasi-ballistic transport well above the conduction band edge. After traversing the base, high energy electrons either surmount the base-collector barrier and become collector current or reflect off the barrier and become base current. We fabricate HETs with various base thicknesses and measure the common emitter transfer ratio (α) for each device. The mean free path is extracted by fitting α to a decaying exponential as a function of base width and the relaxation time is computed using a suitable injection velocity. For devices with an injection energy of ∼1 eV, we measure a hot electron mean free path of 14 nm and calculate a momentum relaxation time of 16 fs. These values are in agreement with theoretical calculations where longitudinal optical phonon scattering is the dominant momentum relaxation mechanism.

Methods, systems and computer program products are disclosed for measuring a performance of a program running on a processing unit of a processing system. In one embodiment, the method comprises informing a logic unit of each instruction in the program that is executed by the processing unit, assigning a weight to each instruction, assigning the instructions to a plurality of groups, and analyzing the plurality of groups to measure one or more metrics. In one embodiment, each instruction includes an operating code portion, and the assigning includes assigning the instructions to the groups based on the operating code portions of the instructions. In an embodiment, each type of instruction is assigned to a respective one of the plurality of groups. These groups may be combined into a plurality of sets of the groups.

Methods, systems and computer program products are disclosed for measuring a performance of a program running on a processing unit of a processing system. In one embodiment, the method comprises informing a logic unit of each instruction in the program that is executed by the processing unit, assigning a weight to each instruction, assigning the instructions to a plurality of groups, and analyzing the plurality of groups to measure one or more metrics. In one embodiment, each instruction includes an operating code portion, and the assigning includes assigning the instructions to the groups based on the operating code portions of the instructions. In an embodiment, each type of instruction is assigned to a respective one of the plurality of groups. These groups may be combined into a plurality of sets of the groups.

We demonstrate the use of planar Hall effect magnetoresistive sensors for AC susceptibility measurements of magnetic beads with frequencies ranging from DC to 1 MHz. This wide frequency range allows for measuring Brownian relaxation of magnetic beads with diameters ranging from 10 nm to 250 nm...... to sedimentation, magnetic trapping, and signal per bead. Among the investigated beads, we conclude that the beads with a nominal diameter of 80 nm are best suited for future on-chip volume-based biosensing experiments using planar Hall effect sensors........ Brownian relaxation is measured for six different magnetic bead types and their hydrodynamic diameters are determined. The hydrodynamic diameters are found to be within 40% of the nominal bead diameters. We discuss the applicability of the different bead types for volume-based biosensing with respect...

The characteristics of electronic transport properties: behaviors of magnetization curve and magnetic relaxation of a typical normal superconductor 2H-NbSe2 are investigated. The results show that TCand ΔTC of the samples are 7.2,0.18 K, indicating that superconducting energy gap at zero temperature is 1.1 meV. No fish tail shape is found in the magnetization curves at several temperatures. The relationship between remnant magnetic moment and time reveals that the magnetic flux creep of the sample agrees with the Kim-Anderson thermal activation model with the relaxation rate S=0.000 36 at T=6 K.

The stress relaxation behaviour has been investigated for strips of copper alloys that are commonly used for electromechanical elements like contacts and springs. Among the materials examined, i.e. CuSnMg, CuMg0,7, CuSn6, CuFe2P, CuFe2Mg, CuNi18Zn20, CuNi9Sn2 as well as the age-hardenable alloys CuNi1,5Si0,3 and CuCrZr, the copper-chromium-zirconium alloy proves to have the best stress relaxation properties. (orig.).

We report on in-situ resistivity and Hall-effect studies of partially oxygen-depleted YBa2Cu3Ox thin films during white light illumination. The measurements were performed at various temperatures between the superconducting transition and room temperature. At all temperatures the resistivity and the Hall coefficient decreased as a function of the illumination time. The Hall number pH and the Hall mobility μH, calculated within a simple one-band model, showed an increase of pH during the illumination without a saturation. At low temperatures, μH behaved similarly to pH. At 200 K, however, μH became constant after several hours of illumination, while at 260 K and 290 K, we observed a short increase of μH followed by a long-term decrease. From the different time dependences of μH and pH, we conclude that two mechanisms contribute to the photodoping effect. Additionally, we observed that after termination of the illumination at 290 K the photodoped values of pH and μH relaxed with substantially different time constants.

The dependence of magnetic relaxation on particle parameters, such as the size and anisotropy, has been conventionally discussed. In addition, the influences of external conditions, such as the intensity and frequency of the applied field, the surrounding viscosity, and the temperature on the magnetic relaxation have been researched. According to one of the basic theories regarding magnetic relaxation, the faster type of relaxation dominates the process. However, in this study, we reveal that Brownian and Néel relaxations coexist and that Brownian relaxation can occur after Néel relaxation despite having a longer relaxation time. To understand the mechanisms of Brownian rotation, alternating current (AC) hysteresis loops were measured in magnetic fluids of different viscosities. These loops conveyed the amplitude and phase delay of the magnetization. In addition, the intrinsic loss power (ILP) was calculated using the area of the AC hysteresis loops. The ILP also showed the magnetization response regarding the magnetic relaxation over a wide frequency range. To develop biomedical applications of magnetic nanoparticles, such as hyperthermia and magnetic particle imaging, it is necessary to understand the mechanisms of magnetic relaxation.

Full Text Available The dependence of magnetic relaxation on particle parameters, such as the size and anisotropy, has been conventionally discussed. In addition, the influences of external conditions, such as the intensity and frequency of the applied field, the surrounding viscosity, and the temperature on the magnetic relaxation have been researched. According to one of the basic theories regarding magnetic relaxation, the faster type of relaxation dominates the process. However, in this study, we reveal that Brownian and Néel relaxations coexist and that Brownian relaxation can occur after Néel relaxation despite having a longer relaxation time. To understand the mechanisms of Brownian rotation, alternating current (AC hysteresis loops were measured in magnetic fluids of different viscosities. These loops conveyed the amplitude and phase delay of the magnetization. In addition, the intrinsic loss power (ILP was calculated using the area of the AC hysteresis loops. The ILP also showed the magnetization response regarding the magnetic relaxation over a wide frequency range. To develop biomedical applications of magnetic nanoparticles, such as hyperthermia and magnetic particle imaging, it is necessary to understand the mechanisms of magnetic relaxation.

We demonstrate the detection of the Brownian relaxation frequency of 250 nm diameter magnetic beads using a lab-on-chip platform based on current lines for exciting the beads with alternating magnetic fields and highly sensitive magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) sensors with a superparamagnetic free...

The dynamic behavior of thin polymer films is of interest in fabrication of microelectronics, optoelectronics and for the coatings industry. It is known that polymer relaxation is effected by film thickness and by the particular substrate/polymer pair. Recently, we have used a spectroscopic ellipsometer to investigate the glass transition in thin films. In addition to information on modification of thermal transitions, the spectroscopic ellipsometer allows for direct observation of the isothermal dimensions of a thin polymer film as a function of time following a rapid temperature change. Recent results will be presented on the observation of time dependence in film-normal thickness and normalized, in-plane, lateral dimension (explained in talk) as well as simple fits to this relaxation behavior in terms of a normalized viscosity and relaxation time. Initial results support a highly asymmetric initial thermal expansion followed by close to isotropic relaxation and anisotropic flow. These features may elucidate models for chain orientation in thin polymer films. Beaucage, G.; Composto, R.; Stein, R.S. (1993). J. Poly. Sci., Polym. Phys. Ed., 31 319. Kovacs, A. J.; Hutchinson, J. M.; Aklonis, J. J. (1977) in "The Structure of Non-Crystalline Materials", Ed. P. H. Gaskell, Taylor and Francis, London. Banach, M. J.; Clarson, S. J.; Beaucage, G.; Kramer, E. J.; Benkoski, J.; Vaia, R. Submitted Macromolecules (1999). Beaucage, G.; Banach, M. J.; Vaia, R. A. Submitted Macromolecules (1999).

(15)N R2 relaxation is one of the most informative experiments for characterization of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs). Small changes in nitrogen R2 rates are often used to determine how IDPs respond to various biologically relevant perturbations such as point mutations, posttranslational modifications and weak ligand interactions. However collecting high-quality (15)N relaxation data can be difficult. Of necessity, the samples of IDPs are often prepared with low protein concentration and the measurement time can be limited because of rapid sample degradation. Furthermore, due to hardware limitations standard experiments such as (15)N spin-lock and CPMG can sample the relaxation decay only to ca. 150ms. This is much shorter than (15)N T2 times in disordered proteins at or near physiological temperature. As a result, the sampling of relaxation decay profiles in these experiments is suboptimal, which further lowers the precision of the measurements. Here we report a new implementation of the proton-decoupled (PD) CPMG experiment which allows one to sample (15)N R2 relaxation decay up to ca. 0.5-1s. The new experiment has been validated through comparison with the well-established spin-lock measurement. Using dilute samples of denatured ubiquitin, we have demonstrated that PD-CPMG produces up to 3-fold improvement in the precision of the data. It is expected that for intrinsically disordered proteins the gains may be even more substantial. We have also shown that this sequence has a number of favorable properties: (i) the spectra are recorded with narrow linewidth in nitrogen dimension; (ii) (15)N offset correction is small and easy to calculate; (iii) the experiment is immune to various spurious effects arising from solvent exchange; (iv) the results are stable with respect to pulse miscalibration and rf field inhomogeneity; (v) with minimal change, the pulse sequence can also be used to measure R2 relaxation of (15)N(ε) spins in arginine side chains. We

Houston experiences higher ozone production rates than most other major cities in the US, which is related to high anthropogenic VOC emissions from both area/mobile sources (car traffic) and a large number of petrochemical facilities. The EPA forecasts that Houston is likely to still violate the new 8-h NAAQS in 2020. To monitor neighborhood scale pollutant fluxes, we established a tall flux tower installation a few kilometers north of downtown Houston. We measure energy and trace gas fluxes, including VOCs from both anthropogenic and biogenic emission sources in the urban surface layer using eddy covariance and related techniques. Here, we describe a Relaxed Eddy Accumulation (REA) system combined with a dual-channel GC-FID used for VOC flux measurements, including first results. Ambient air is sampled at approximately 15 L min-1 through a 9.5 mm OD PFA line from 60 m above ground next to a sonic anemometer. Subsamples of this air stream are extracted through an ozone scrubber and pushed into two Teflon bag reservoirs, from which they are transferred to the GC pre-concentration units consisting of carbon-based adsorption traps encapsulated in heater blocks for thermal desorption. We discuss the performance of our system and selected measurement results from the 2008 spring and summer seasons in Houston. We present diurnal variations of the fluxes of the traffic tracers benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes (BTEX) during different study periods. Typical BTEX fluxes ranged from -0.36 to 3.10 mg m-2 h-1 for benzene, and -0.47 to 5.04 mg m-2 h-1 for toluene, and exhibited diurnal cycles with two dominant peaks related to rush-hour traffic. A footprint analysis overlaid onto a geographic information system (GIS) will be presented to reveal the dominant emission sources and patterns in the study area.

Activated dynamics plays a central role in protein function, where transitions between distinct conformations often underlie the switching between active and inactive states. The characteristic time scales of these transitions typically fall in the microsecond to millisecond range, which is amenable to investigations by NMR relaxation dispersion experiments. Processes at the faster end of this range are more challenging to study, because higher RF field strengths are required to achieve refocusing of the exchanging magnetization. Here we describe a rotating-frame relaxation dispersion experiment for (1)H spins in methyl (13)CHD2 groups, which improves the characterization of fast exchange processes. The influence of (1)H-(1)H rotating-frame nuclear Overhauser effects (ROE) is shown to be negligible, based on a comparison of R 1ρ relaxation data acquired with tilt angles of 90° and 35°, in which the ROE is maximal and minimal, respectively, and on samples containing different (1)H densities surrounding the monitored methyl groups. The method was applied to ubiquitin and the apo form of calmodulin. We find that ubiquitin does not exhibit any (1)H relaxation dispersion of its methyl groups at 10 or 25 °C. By contrast, calmodulin shows significant conformational exchange of the methionine methyl groups in its C-terminal domain, as previously demonstrated by (1)H and (13)C CPMG experiments. The present R 1ρ experiment extends the relaxation dispersion profile towards higher refocusing frequencies, which improves the definition of the exchange correlation time, compared to previous results.

A simple technique for single-scan T1 measurements in solids is proposed and analyzed for single exponential spin-lattice relaxation. In this technique, the direct spin heating caused by the sampling process is significantly reduced in comparison with conventional techniques by utilizing the 'solid echo' to refocus the magnetization. The applicability of this technique to both the solid and liquid phases is demonstrated.

This report is a summary of the water analysis performance for the Denver, Colorado Wynkoop Building. The Wynkoop Building (Figure 1) was built in 2006 as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 8 Headquarters intended to house over 900 occupants in the 301,292 gross square feet (248,849 rentable square feet). The building was built on a brownfield in the Lower Downtown Historic District as part of an urban redevelopment effort. The building was designed and constructed through a public-private partnership with the sustainable design elements developed jointly by General Services Administration (GSA) and EPA. That partnership is still active with all parties still engaged to optimize building operations and use the building as a Learning Laboratory. The building design achieved U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for New Construction (LEED-NC) Gold Certification in 2008 (Figure 2) and a 2008 EPA Energy Star Rating of 96 with design highlights that include: (1) Water use was designed to use 40% less than a typical design baseline. The design included low flow fixtures, waterless urinals and dual flush toilets; (2) Native and adaptive vegetation were selected to minimize the need for irrigation water for landscaping; and (3) Energy use intensity was modeled at 66.1 kBtus/gross square foot, which is 39% better than ASHRAE 90.1 1999. The Wynkoop Building water use (10 gallons/square foot) was measured at lower than industry average (15 gallons/square foot) and GSA goals (13 gallons/square foot), however, it was higher than building management expected it would be. The type of occupants and number of occupants can have a significant impact on fixture water use. The occupancy per floor varied significantly over the study time period, which added uncertainty to the data analysis. Investigation of the fixture use on the 2nd, 5th, and 7th floors identified potential for water use reduction if the flush direction of the dual

The objective of this study was to use high-fidelity animal data and numerical simulations to gain more insight into the reliability of the estimated relaxation constant derived from left ventricular pressure decays, assuming a monoexponential model with either a fixed zero or free moving pressure asymptote. Comparison of the experimental data with the results of the simulations demonstrated a trade off between the fixed zero and the free moving asymptote approach. The latter method more closely fits the pressure curves and has the advantage of producing an extra coefficient with potential diagnostic information. On the other hand, this method suffers from larger standard errors on the estimated coefficients. The method with fixed zero asymptote produces values of the time constant of isovolumetric relaxation (tau) within a narrow confidence interval. However, if the pressure curve is actually decaying to a nonzero pressure asymptote, this method results in an inferior fit of the pressure curve and a biased estimation of tau.

The fate of anthropogenic emissions of mercury (Hg) to the atmosphere is influenced by the exchange of elemental Hg with the earth surface. This exchange holds the key to a better understanding of Hg cycling from local to global scales, which has been difficult to quantify. To advance research about land-atmosphere Hg interactions, we developed a dual-inlet, single detector relaxed eddy accumulation (REA) system. REA is an established technique for measuring turbulent fluxes of trace gases and aerosol particles in the atmospheric surface layer. Accurate determination of gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) fluxes has proven difficult due to technical challenges presented by extremely small concentration differences (typically < 0.5 ng m-3) between updrafts and downdrafts. We present an advanced REA design that uses two inlets and two pairs of gold cartridges for continuous monitoring of GEM fluxes. This setup reduces the major uncertainty created by the sequential sampling in many previous designs. Additionally, the instrument is equipped with a GEM reference gas generator that monitors drift and recovery rates. These innovations facilitate continuous, autonomous measurement of GEM flux. To demonstrate the system performance, we present results from field campaigns in two contrasting environments: an urban setting with a heterogeneous fetch and a boreal peatland during snowmelt. The observed average emission rates were 15 and 3 ng m-2 h-1, respectively. We believe that this dual-inlet, single detector approach is a significant improvement of the REA system for ultra-trace gases and can help to advance our understanding of long-term land-atmosphere GEM exchange.

In September 2005, a 60km-long dike intrusion took place at the Dabbahu rift, Afar, Ethiopia, at the boundary between the Nubian and Danakil plates. Since this major event, 12 new intrusions have affected the central and southern parts of the 2005 dike. Time series from continuous GPS stations outside of volcanoes show a combination of discrete diking events and quasi constant velocity displacement at rates up to 10 times faster than the secular divergence rate between Nubia and Arabia. Survey GPS sites in the far-field show rates twice as fast as the secular Nubia/Arabia divergence. Similar observations after the 1975-1985 Krafla events in Iceland and the 1978 Asal-Ghoubbet events in Afar have been interpreted as the result of stress relaxation in a viscoelastic lithospheric mantle and/or continued magma injection. Nooner et al. (submitted) showed that horizontal GPS displacements are well explained by the relaxation, in a viscoelastic upper mantle, of the stresses imparted by the dike intrusions. The best fit is obtained for a 13.2km-thick crust overlying a mantle with a viscosity of 5.2x10^18Pa.s. We improve upon this approach with a model accounting for dike intrusions, viscoelastic stress relaxation in a power-law rheology upper mantle, laterally varying crustal thicknesses, and pressure changes in magma reservoirs. Preliminary results indicate that 3-dimensional velocity field from GPS and InSAR requires a combination of viscoelastic relaxation and magma transport at depth.

Tension responses due to small and rapid length changes (completed within 40 microseconds) were obtained from skinned single-fiber segments (4- to 7-mm length) of the iliofibularis muscle of the frog incubated in relaxing, rigor, and activating solution. The fibers were skinned by freeze-drying. The first 500 microseconds of the responses for all three conditions could be described with a linear model, in which the fiber is regarded as a rod composed of infinitesimally small identical segment...

The authors have measured the relaxation time of hot electrons in short pulse laser-solid interactions using a picosecond time-resolved x-ray spectrometer and a time-integrated electron spectrometer. Employing laser intensities of 10{sup 17}, 10{sup 18}, and 10{sup 19} W/cm{sup 2}, they find increased laser coupling to hot electrons as the laser intensity becomes relativistic and thermalization of hot electrons at timescales on the order of 10 ps at all laser intensities. They propose a simple model based on collisional coupling and plasma expansion to describe the rapid relaxation of hot electrons. The agreement between the resulting K{sub {alpha}} time-history from this model with the experiments is best at highest laser intensity and less satisfactory at the two lower laser intensities.

Full Text Available Dans cet article, on se propose de présenter les premiers résultats de l'étude de la méthode d'évaluation des contraintes par mesure de déformations différées d'une carotte après son extraction. Le travail correspondant a été réalisé dans le cadre du projet ARTEP Fracturation hydraulique . Les principes de cette méthode et les quelques éléments d'interprétation récemment publiés dans la littérature sont exposés dans un premier temps. Les résultats de deux campagnes de mesures sur deux puits de la SNEA-P (Soudron, novembre 1985 et Lanot, juillet 1986 sont ensuite présentés. Ces essais ont mis en évidence que les déformations différées d'une carotte dues au relachement des contraintes sont effectivement mesurables. Cependant, une interprétation quantitative de ces mesures nécessite une amélioration des conditions expérimentales (stabilisation thermique, stabilisation de l'état de saturation. This article describes the first results of research on a method of evaluating stresses by measuring the differred deformations of a core sample after it has been extracted. The corresponding research was done within the framework of an ARTEP project on Hydraulic Fracturing . The principles of this method and several interpretation aspects published recently in the literature are described in the first part. Then the results of two measurement campaigns using two SNEA-P wells (Soudron in November 1985 and Lanot in July 1986 are described. These tests revealed that the differed deformations of a core sample due to the relaxing of stresses can effectively be measured. However, a quantitative interpretation of these measurements requires an improvement to be made in the experimental conditions (thermal stabilization, stabilization of the state of saturation.

The paper concerns measuring and reporting of financial performance of an enterprise. Currently increasing emphasis is placed on performancemeasurement and management. Within performancemeasurement and management in general the role of financial performance is becoming increasingly important. The paper is concerned with measuring and reporting of financial performance of an enterprise primarily from manager’s point of view. In its first part it deals primarily with the connection between th...

The translational diffusion of macromolecules can be examined non-invasively by stimulated echo (STE) NMR experiments to accurately determine their molecular sizes. These measurements can be important probes of intermolecular interactions and protein folding and unfolding, and are crucial in monitoring the integrity of large macromolecular assemblies such as ribosome–nascent chain complexes (RNCs). However, NMR studies of these complexes can be severely constrained by their slow tumbling, low solubility (with maximum concentrations of up to 10 μM), and short lifetimes resulting in weak signal, and therefore continuing improvements in experimental sensitivity are essential. Here we explore the use of the paramagnetic longitudinal relaxation enhancement (PLRE) agent NiDO2A on the sensitivity of {sup 15}N XSTE and SORDID heteronuclear STE experiments, which can be used to monitor the integrity of these unstable complexes. We exploit the dependence of the PLRE effect on the gyromagnetic ratio and electronic relaxation time to accelerate recovery of {sup 1}H magnetization without adversely affecting storage on N{sub z} during diffusion delays or introducing significant transverse relaxation line broadening. By applying the longitudinal relaxation-optimized SORDID pulse sequence together with NiDO2A to 70S Escherichia coli ribosomes and RNCs, NMR diffusion sensitivity enhancements of up to 4.5-fold relative to XSTE are achieved, alongside ∼1.9-fold improvements in two-dimensional NMR sensitivity, without compromising the sample integrity. We anticipate these results will significantly advance the use of NMR to probe dynamic regions of ribosomes and other large, unstable macromolecular assemblies.Graphical Abstract.

The miscibility of a drug with excipients in solid dispersions is considered to be one of the most important factors for preparation of stable amorphous solid dispersions. The purpose of the present study was to elucidate the feasibility of (1)H-NMR spin-lattice relaxationmeasurements to assess the miscibility of a drug with excipients. Solid dispersions of nifedipine with the hydrophilic polymers poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP), hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC) and alpha,beta-poly(N-5-hydroxypentyl)-L-aspartamide (PHPA) with various weight ratios were prepared by spray drying, and the spin-lattice relaxation decay of the solid dispersions in a laboratory frame (T(1) decay) and in a rotating frame (T(1rho) decay) were measured. T(1rho) decay of nifedipine-PVP solid dispersions (3 : 7, 5 : 5 and 7 : 3) was describable with a mono-exponential equation, whereas T(1rho) decay of nifedipine-PHPA solid dispersions (3 : 7, 4 : 6 and 5 : 5) was describable with a bi-exponential equation. Because a mono-exponential T(1rho) decay indicates that the domain sizes of nifedipine and polymer in solid dispersion are less than several nm, it is speculated that nifedipine is miscible with PVP but not miscible with PHPA. All the nifedipine-PVP solid dispersions studied showed a single glass transition temperature (T(g)), whereas two glass transitions were observed for the nifedipine-PHPA solid dispersion (3 : 7), thus supporting the above speculation. For nifedipine-HPMC solid dispersions (3 : 7 and 5 : 5), the miscibility of nifedipine and HPMC could not be determined by DSC measurements due to the lack of obviously evident T(g). In contrast, (1)H-NMR spin-lattice relaxationmeasurements showed that nifedipine and HPMC are miscible, since T(1rho) decay of the solid dispersions (3 : 7, 5 : 5 and 7 : 3) was describable with a mono-exponential equation. These results indicate that (1)H-NMR spin-lattice relaxationmeasurements are useful for assessing the miscibility of a drug and an

Alkali metal thermal to electric converter(AMTEC)is a direct energy conversion device capable of near-Carnot efficiencies,and has demonstrated the performance of high power density,high current low voltage.Electrode is a key component of achieving high efficiency in an AMTEC device.A RhW alloy target was used for deposition

The relaxation of the energy stored in the translational and rotational degrees of freedom of N2 and CH4 in the course of free jet expansions has been experimentally studied. Rotational temperatures along the expansion axis were obtained by means of stimulated Raman spectroscopy, and terminal flow velocities and translational temperatures were determined from supersonic beam time-of-flight measurements. From these measurements low-temperature cross sections for rotational relaxation have been...

A labeling scheme is introduced that facilitates the measurement of accurate {sup 13}C{sup {beta}} chemical shifts of invisible, excited states of proteins by relaxation dispersion NMR spectroscopy. The approach makes use of protein over-expression in a strain of E. coli in which the TCA cycle enzyme succinate dehydrogenase is knocked out, leading to the production of samples with high levels of {sup 13}C enrichment (30-40%) at C{sup {beta}} side-chain carbon positions for 15 of the amino acids with little {sup 13}C label at positions one bond removed ({approx}5%). A pair of samples are produced using [1-{sup 13}C]-glucose/NaH{sup 12}CO{sub 3} or [2-{sup 13}C]-glucose as carbon sources with isolated and enriched (>30%) {sup 13}C{sup {beta}} positions for 11 and 4 residues, respectively. The efficacy of the labeling procedure is established by NMR spectroscopy. The utility of such samples for measurement of {sup 13}C{sup {beta}} chemical shifts of invisible, excited states in exchange with visible, ground conformations is confirmed by relaxation dispersion studies of a protein-ligand binding exchange reaction in which the extracted chemical shift differences from dispersion profiles compare favorably with those obtained directly from measurements on ligand free and fully bound protein samples.

The aim of this study was to investigate a technique for improving the performance of Magnetic Resonance Fingerprinting (MRF) in repetitive sampling schemes, in particular for 3D MRF acquisition, by shortening relaxation intervals between MRF pulse train repetitions. A calculation method for MRF dictionaries adapted to short relaxation intervals and non-relaxed initial spin states is presented, based on the concept of stationary fingerprints. The method is applicable to many different k-space sampling schemes in 2D and 3D. For accuracy analysis, T1 and T2 values of a phantom are determined by single-slice Cartesian MRF for different relaxation intervals and are compared with quantitative reference measurements. The relevance of slice profile effects is also investigated in this case. To further illustrate the capabilities of the method, an application to in-vivo spiral 3D MRF measurements is demonstrated. The proposed computation method enables accurate parameter estimation even for the shortest relaxation intervals, as investigated for different sampling patterns in 2D and 3D. In 2D Cartesian measurements, we achieved a scan acceleration of more than a factor of two, while maintaining acceptable accuracy: The largest T1 values of a sample set deviated from their reference values by 0.3% (longest relaxation interval) and 2.4% (shortest relaxation interval). The largest T2 values showed systematic deviations of up to 10% for all relaxation intervals, which is discussed. The influence of slice profile effects for multislice acquisition is shown to become increasingly relevant for short relaxation intervals. In 3D spiral measurements, a scan time reduction of 36% was achieved, maintaining the quality of in-vivo T1 and T2 maps. Reducing the relaxation interval between MRF sequence repetitions using stationary fingerprint dictionaries is a feasible method to improve the scan efficiency of MRF sequences. The method enables fast implementations of 3D spatially resolved

{sup 15}N longitudinal relaxation rates are extensively used for the characterization of protein dynamics; however, their accurate measurement is hindered by systematic errors. {sup 15}N CSA/{sup 1}H–{sup 15}N dipolar cross-correlated relaxation (CC) and amide proton exchange saturation transfer from water protons are the two main sources of systematic errors in the determination of {sup 15}N R{sub 1} rates through {sup 1}H–{sup 15}N HSQC-based experiments. CC is usually suppressed through a train of 180° proton pulses applied during the variable {sup 15}N relaxation period (T), which can perturb water magnetization. Thus CC cancellation is required in such a way as to minimize water saturation effects. Here we examined the level of water saturation during the T period caused by various types of inversion proton pulses to suppress CC: (I) amide-selective IBURP-2; (II) cosine-modulated IBURP-2; (III) Watergate-like blocks; and (IV) non-selective hard. We additionally demonstrate the effect of uncontrolled saturation of aliphatic protons on {sup 15}N R{sub 1} rates. In this paper we present an optimized pulse sequence that takes into account the crucial effect of controlling also the saturation of the aliphatic protons during {sup 15}N R{sub 1} measurements in non-deuterated proteins. We show that using cosine-modulated IBURP-2 pulses spaced 40 ms to cancel CC in this optimized pulse program is the method of choice to minimize systematic errors coming from water and aliphatic protons saturation effects.

Measurement of performance in every business management is a crucial activity allowing for effectiveness increase. The lack of suitable performancemeasurement is especially noticed in complex systems as supply chains. Responsible persons cannot manage effectively without suitable set of measures those are base for comparison to previous data or effects of other supply chain functioning. The analysis shows that it is very hard to find balanced set of supply chain performancemeasures those sh...

markdownabstract__Abstract__ This article explores the introduction of performancemeasurement tools in new democracies by presenting a qualitative study based on Estonian governmental documents and performance audits. A set of specific factors help to explain difficulties in introducing performan

This work presents a new method allowing localized T2 measurements, based upon the OSIRIS scheme. A train of 180 degrees pulses is applied after the OSIRIS preparation cycle, recording directly the transverse magnetization decay. The method was verified for two nuclei, 1H and 19F, with phantoms and in vivo on rats. The accuracy of the T2 values is discussed, as well as possible applications of the OSIRIS-CPMG method to proton transverse spin relaxationmeasurements, free of diffusion effects, and to non-invasive in vivo blood oxygenation measurements, through the use of an emulsion of perfluorooctylbromide, a blood substitute containing fluorine.

In this study, a wind tunnel was used to simulate the exposure of extensive green roofs to varying temperature rates. The aim of the study was to calculate an effective R-value under steady state conditions. Heat transfer through the green roof into the building beneath was measured. Results of the study showed that hotter air temperatures inhibited rooftop heat transfer. Larger-leafed plants with higher transpiration rates delivered higher R-values than low water use plants such as sedums. R-values for green roofs covered with periwinkle, clover, and rye grass were all significantly higher than values observed for bare soil roofs in comparable conditions. Effective R-values were reduced when soil moisture was increased beyond the necessary transpiration requirements of the plants. The laboratory studies indicated that green roofs can be designed to maximize effective R-values. R-values can be increased by up to 50 per cent when appropriate irrigation is supplied to plants with high transpiration rates. 13 refs., 2 tabs., 6 figs.

The temporal technique analysis by a simplex optimization method of isothermal transient depolarization current measurements (Simplex-TSDC) is presented for the study of the glass transition domain of different polymers. The advantage of the present method compared to the classical TSDC is that it gives direct results comparable to the experiment and allows a good estimate of the relaxation time close to the glass transition temperature in dielectric thin films. The present method also allows a direct determination of two relaxation times corresponding to a fast and a slow dynamics; and then confirms the heterogeneous character of the molecular relaxation dynamics.

Longitudinal relaxation (T1) measurements of 19F, 7Li, and 1H in propylene carbonate/LiBF4 liquid electrolytes are reported. Comparison of T1 values with those for the transverse relaxation time (T2) confirm that the measurements are in the high temperature (low correlation time) limit of the T1 minimum. Using data from pulsed field gradient measurements of self-diffusion coefficients and measurements of solution viscosity measured elsewhere, it is concluded that although in general there are contributions to T1 from both translational and rotational motions. For the lithium ions, this is mainly translational, and for the fluorine ions mainly rotational.

Advances in metastability exchange optical pumping (MEOP) of {sup 3}He at high laser powers, with its various applications, but also at high gas pressures p{sub 3} and high magnetic field strengths B, have provided strong motivation for revisiting the understanding and for investigating the limitations of this powerful technique. For this purpose, we present systematic experimental and theoretical studies of efficiency and of relaxation mechanisms in B{<=}30 mT and p{sub 3}=0.63-2.45 mbar. {sup 3}He nuclear polarisation is measured by light absorption in longitudinal configuration where weak light beams at 1083 nm parallel to magnetic field and cell axis with opposite circular polarisations are used to probe the distribution of populations in the metastable state. This method is systematically tested to evaluate potential systematic biases and is shown to be reliable for the study of OP dynamics despite the redistribution of populations by OP light. Nuclear polarisation loss associated to the emission of polarised light by the plasma discharge used for MEOP is found to decrease above 10 mT, as expected, due to hyperfine decoupling in highly excited states. However, this does not lead to improved MEOP efficiency at high laser power. We find clear evidence of additional laser-induced relaxation instead. The strong OP-enhanced polarisation losses, currently limiting MEOP performances, are quantitatively investigated using an angular momentum budget approach and a recently developed comprehensive model that describes the combined effects of OP, ME and relaxation, validated by comparison to experimental results.

that performancemeasurement serves as “rituals of verification” which promotes the interests of political masters and their mistresses rather than public service. Another area of concern is the cost of performancemeasurement. Hood & Peters (2004:278) note that performancemeasurement is likely to “distract...... the actual impact, the costs and unintended consequences associated with performancemeasurement. This paper identifies the main rationales and rationalities in the scholarly discourse on public services performancemeasurement. It concludes with some suggestions on how to deal with the many rationales......Nowadays, states spend more attention, time and money on performancemeasurement and evaluation in the public sector than ever before (OECD, 1996; Power, 1997; van Thiel et al., 2002). Result-based management is the talk of the day at all levels of the public sector; at local, regional, national...

with 18 to 36 months time in service and, at the same time, assess the Soldiers’ job performance by using specially designed indicators, called...criterion measures. This report describes the criterion measures that will be used to measure the job performance and organizational "fit" of Soldiers...tests to determine how well the pre-enlistment tests might forecast future job performance . The main purpose of this report is to acquaint Army readers

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of two music therapy approaches, improvisation-assisted desensitization, and music-assisted progressive muscle relaxation and imagery on ameliorating the symptoms of music performance anxiety (MPA) among student pianists. Thirty female college pianists (N = 30) were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: (a) improvised music-assisted desensitization group (n = 15), or (b) music-assisted progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) and imagery group (n = 15). All participants received 6 weekly music therapy sessions according to their assigned group. Two lab performances were provided; one before and one after the 6 music therapy sessions, as the performance stimuli for MPA. All participants completed pretest and posttest measures that included four types of visual analogue scales (MPA, stress, tension, and comfort), the state portion of Spielberger's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and the Music Performance Anxiety Questionnaire (MPAQ) developed by Lehrer, Goldman, and Strommen (1990). Participants' finger temperatures were also measured. When results of the music-assisted PMR and imagery condition were compared from pretest to posttest, statistically significant differences occurred in 6 out of the 7 measures-MPA, tension, comfort, STAI, MPAQ, and finger temperature, indicating that the music-assisted PMR and imagery treatment was very successful in reducing MPA. For the improvisation-assisted desensitization condition, the statistically significant decreases in tension and STAI, with increases in finger temperature indicated that this approach was effective in managing MPA to some extent. When the difference scores for the two approaches were compared, there was no statistically significant difference between the two approaches for any of the seven measures. Therefore, no one treatment condition appeared more effective than the other. Although statistically significant differences were not found between

A laboratory experiment is described which employs a relaxation method for the measurement of the specific heat at constant pressure of solids at room temperature. The experiment employs measurements of the cooling (or heating) rate of a sample whose temperature differs from that of the surroundings due to light heating. This rate depends on the temperature difference, the specific heat of the sample and the heat transfer coefficient. The sample is suspended adiabatically in a reservoir in which a vacuum can be made. The influence of heat dissipation by convection on the results is discussed for the first time for this kind of experiment. The theoretical aspects related to the described technique involve concepts from several branches of physics that makes the experiment of interest and suitable for students at undergraduate and graduate levels of physics, material sciences and engineering.

Structural dynamics and volume were measured as a function of both temperature and pressure for a propylene glycol and its oligomers (PPG), and the results compared with previous data on higher molecular weight polypropylene glycols. PPG is of special interest because the terminal groups form hydrogen bonds; thus, by studying different molecular weights, the manner in which hydrogen bonding influences the dynamics in the supercooled regime can be systematically investigated. The fragility (Tg-normalized temperature dependence) of the dimer and trimer of PPG increases with pressure, similar to results for other H-bonded liquids, but different from van der Waals glass formers. This behavior is believed to be due to the effect of pressure in decreasing the extent of hydrogen bonding. From the combined temperature and volume dependences of the relaxation times, the relative degree to which thermal energy and volume govern the dynamics was quantified. With decreasing molecular weight, the relative contribution of thermal energy to the dynamics was found to strongly increase, reflecting the role of hydrogen bonding. By comparing the ionic conductivity and the dielectric relaxation times, a decoupling between rotational and translational motions was observed. Interestingly, this decoupling was independent of both pressure and molecular weight, indicating that hydrogen bonds have a negligible effect on the phenomenon.

Full Text Available One of the priorities of economic research has been and remains the re-evaluation of the notion of performance and especially exploring and finding some indicators that would reflect as accurately as possible the subtleties of the economic entity. The main purpose of this paper is to highlight the main company performancemeasurement and reporting methods. Performance is a concept that raises many question marks concerning the most accurate or the best method of reporting the performance at the company level. The research methodology has aimed at studying the Romanian and foreign specialized literature dealing with the analyzed field, studying magazines specialized on company performancemeasurement. If the financial performancemeasurement indicators are considered to offer an accurate image of the situation of the company, the modern approach through non-financial indicators offers a new perspective upon performancemeasurement, which is based on simplicity. In conclusion, after the theoretical study, I have noticed that the methods of performancemeasurement, reporting and interpretation are various, the opinions regarding the best performancemeasurement methods are contradictive and the companies prefer resorting to financial indicators that still play a more important role in the consolidation of the company performancemeasurement than the non-financial indicators do.

The relaxation of Fe/MgO/Fe tunnel junctions grown epitaxially on (001) MgO substrates has been measured by in-situ grazing incidence in-plane X-ray diffraction during the thermal annealing cycle. We find that the Fe layers are fully relaxed and that there are no irreversible changes during annealing. The MgO tunnel barrier is initially strained towards the Fe but on annealing, relaxes and expands towards the bulk MgO value. The strain dispersion is reduced in the MgO by about 40% above 480 K post-annealing. There is no significant change in the "twist" mosaic. Our results indicate that the final annealing stage of device fabrication, crucial to attainment of high TMR, induces substantial strain relaxation at the MgO barrier/lower Fe electrode interface.

The minimum resolvable temperature difference (MRTD), the minimum resolvable contrast (MRC), and the triangle orientation discrimination (TOD) are end-to-end EO system performancemeasures; that is, laboratory measures that characterize EO system performance with a human observer in the loop. Such s

Within the fields of human performance technology (HPT), human resources management (HRM), and management in general, performancemeasurement is not only foundational but considered necessary at all phases in the process of HPT. In HPT in particular, there is substantial advice literature on what measurement is, why it is essential, and (at a…

Health system performancemeasurement is a ubiquitous phenomenon. Many authors have identified multiple methodological and substantive problems with performancemeasurement practices. Despite the validity of these criticisms and their cross-national character, the practice of health system performancemeasurement persists. Theodore Marmor suggests that performancemeasurement invokes an "incantatory response" wrapped within "linguistic muddle." In this article, I expand upon Marmor's insights using Pierre Bourdieu's theoretical framework to suggest that, far from an aberration, the "linguistic muddle" identified by Marmor is an indicator of a broad struggle about the representation and classification of public health services as a public good. I present a case study of performancemeasurement from Alberta, Canada, examining how this representational struggle occurs and what the stakes are.

Comparisons are continuously being made between the financial performance, products and services, of the healthcare industry and those of non-healthcare industries. Several useful measures of financial performance--profitability, liquidity, financial risk, asset management and replacement, and debt capacity, are used by the authors to compare the financial performance of the hospital industry with that of the industrial, transportation and utility sectors. Hospitals exhibit weaknesses in several areas. Goals are suggested for each measure to bring hospitals closer to competitive levels.

Spin diffusion in n-GaAs quantum wells, as measured by our optical transient-grating technique, is strongly suppressed relative to that of charge. Over a broad range of temperatures and dopings, the suppression of Ds relative to Dc agrees quantitatively with the prediction of ''spin Coulomb dra'' theory, which takes into account the exchange of spin in electron-electron collisions. Moreover, the spin-diffusion length, Ls, is a nearly constant 1 micrometer over the same range of T and n, despite Ds's varying by nearly two orders of magnitude. This constancy supports the D'yakonov-Perel'-Kachorovskii model of spin relaxation through interrupted precessional dephasing in the spin-orbit field.

Spin diffusion in n-GaAs quantum wells, as measured by our optical transient-grating technique, is strongly suppressed relative to that of charge. Over a broad range of temperatures and dopings, the suppression of Ds relative to Dc agrees quantitatively with the prediction of ''spin Coulomb dra'' theory, which takes into account the exchange of spin in electron-electron collisions. Moreover, the spin-diffusion length, Ls, is a nearly constant 1 micrometer over the same range of T and n, despite Ds's varying by nearly two orders of magnitude. This constancy supports the D'yakonov-Perel'-Kachorovskii model of spin relaxation through interrupted precessional dephasing in the spin-orbit field.

This paper applies the performancemeasurement technique first developed by Sharpe (1992) to a selected pool of Canadian investment funds. Sharpe's technique differed from traditional performancemeasurement methods in two areas. The first being that Sharpe's method included distinct investing styles as asset classes, resulting in an expanded the asset class universe. The second being his method of method of measuring asset class exposures. With a constrained regression equation, Sharpe was a...

Full Text Available Based on an as-serviced 25Cr35Ni type steel, the high temperature property evaluation using stress relaxation test(SRT method and residual life prediction were studied. The results show that creep rupture property decreases because of the formation of network carbides along grain boundaries and coarsening of secondary carbides in the austenitic matrix. Based on the relationship of stress relaxation strain rate curves obtained at different temperatures, and the extrapolation equation of stress relaxation rate-rupture time, it is capable to perform residual life evaluation by combining SRT data and a small amount of creep rupture test(CRT. Good agreement is observed for predicting results performed by current method and traditional method.

Compared with the domestic trade in livestock, intra-communal trade across the European Union (EU) is subject to costly, additional veterinary measures. Short-distance transportation just across a border requires more measures than long-distance domestic transportation, while the need for such addit

The problem of visual tracking evaluation is sporting a large variety of performancemeasures, and largely suffers from lack of consensus about which measures should be used in experiments. This makes the cross-paper tracker comparison difficult. Furthermore, as some measures may be less effective than others, the tracking results may be skewed or biased toward particular tracking aspects. In this paper, we revisit the popular performancemeasures and tracker performance visualizations and analyze them theoretically and experimentally. We show that several measures are equivalent from the point of information they provide for tracker comparison and, crucially, that some are more brittle than the others. Based on our analysis, we narrow down the set of potential measures to only two complementary ones, describing accuracy and robustness, thus pushing toward homogenization of the tracker evaluation methodology. These two measures can be intuitively interpreted and visualized and have been employed by the recent visual object tracking challenges as the foundation for the evaluation methodology.

Full Text Available Since the fifties, several measures have been developed in order to measure the performance of investments or choices involving uncertain outcomes. Much of these measures are based on Expected Utility Theory, but since the nineties a number of measures have been proposed based on Non-Expected Utility Theory. Among the Theories of Non-Expected Utility highlights Prospect Theory, which is the foundation of Behavioral Finance. Based on this theory this study proposes a new performancemeasure in which are embedded loss aversion along with the likelihood of distortions in the choice of alternatives. A hypothetical example is presented in which various performancemeasures, including the new measure are compared. The results showed that the ordering of the assets varied depending on the performancemeasure adopted. According to what was expected, the new performancemeasure clearly has captured the distortion of probabilities and loss aversion of the decision maker, ie, those assets with the greatest negative deviations from the target were those who had the worst performance.

When evaluating physician performancemeasures, physician leaders are faced with the quandary of determining whether departures from expected physician performancemeasurements represent a true signal or random error. This uncertainty impedes the physician leader's ability and confidence to take appropriate performance improvement actions based on physician performancemeasurements. Incorporating reliability adjustment into physician performancemeasurement is a valuable way of reducing the impact of random error in the measurements, such as those caused by small sample sizes. Consequently, the physician executive has more confidence that the results represent true performance and is positioned to make better physician performance improvement decisions. Applying reliability adjustment to physician-level performance data is relatively new. As others have noted previously, it's important to keep in mind that reliability adjustment adds significant complexity to the production, interpretation and utilization of results. Furthermore, the methods explored in this case study only scratch the surface of the range of available Bayesian methods that can be used for reliability adjustment; further study is needed to test and compare these methods in practice and to examine important extensions for handling specialty-specific concerns (e.g., average case volumes, which have been shown to be important in cardiac surgery outcomes). Moreover, it's important to note that the provider group average as a basis for shrinkage is one of several possible choices that could be employed in practice and deserves further exploration in future research. With these caveats, our results demonstrate that incorporating reliability adjustment into physician performancemeasurements is feasible and can notably reduce the incidence of "real" signals relative to what one would expect to see using more traditional approaches. A physician leader who is interested in catalyzing performance improvement

performance is measured has focussed on the process of product development. However, exploration of performancemeasurement related to global product development is relatively unexplored and a need for further research is evident. This paper contributes towards understanding how performance is measured...... in global product development. More specifically, results from a survey and interviews highlight a need for further development in current performancemeasurement frameworks used in product development to facilitate the key factors and metrics in global product development.......An organisation looking to form collaborations across borders is a consequence of an increasingly competitive world market. Recent studies highlighted key challenges and success factors organisation’s face when globalising stages of product development. To optimize performance along these factors...

This research leads to a better understanding of how physical and biological properties of porous media influence water and dense non-aqueous phase liquid (DNAPL) distributions under saturated and unsaturated conditions. Knowing how environmental properties affect DNAPL solvent flow in the subsurface is essential for developing models of flow and transport needed for designing remediation and long-term stewardship strategies. We investigate the capability and limitations of low-field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxation decay-rate measurements for determining environmental properties affecting DNAPL solvent flow in the subsurface. For in-situ subsurface environmental applications, low-field proton NMR measurements are preferred to conventional high-field techniques commonly used to obtain chemical shift data, because low field measurements are much less degraded by magnetic susceptibility variations between rock grains and pore fluids that significantly interfere with high-field NMR measurements. The research scope includes discriminating DNAPLs in water-wet or solvent-wet environments and the impact of biological processes on their transport mechanisms in porous media. Knowledge of the in situ flow properties and pore distributions of organic contaminants are critical to understanding where and when these fluids will enter subsurface aquifers. Experiments determined that commonly found subsurface DNAPLs containing hydrogen, such as trichloroethylene and dichloroethylene, are detectable and distinguished from water in soils. Related experiments concern the effects of bacterial accumulation in saturated and unsaturated porous media on water and DNAPL pore-size distributions. These include synthetic bio-film matrix as a surrogate bio-film and sand, biological agents to grow biofilms, and multiple pore sizes to determine if bio-films prefer certain pore-size ranges. NMR microscopy focused on imaging a single biofilm in a 1 mm capillary reactor. This system

Microphone windscreens are routinely used in outdoor acoustic measurements to reduce wind noise pickup. Characterization of windscreen performance outdoors with real wind has several drawbacks notably that the test conditions cannot be controlled. Test methodology has been developed that provides controlled, repeatable measurements of microphone windscreen performance in a laboratory setting. Wind noise measurements are performed using a high-speed/laminar-flow, low-noise wind tunnel that incorporates a large anechoic chamber. The wind tunnel is modified to produce a turbulent flow into which the microphone and windscreen under evaluation are placed. The turbulent velocity spectrum is measured using multi-axis hot-wire anemometers and compared to outdoor data to locate the best position in the turbulent flow to place the test article. Comparative performancemeasurements of several windscreen designs are presented.

A model-based interpretation of measured equilibrium conductivity and conductivity relaxation is developed to establish thermodynamic, transport, and kinetics parameters for multiple charged defect conducting (MCDC) ceramic materials. The present study focuses on 10% yttrium-doped barium zirconate (BZY10). In principle, using the Nernst-Einstein relationship, equilibrium conductivity measurements are sufficient to establish thermodynamic and transport properties. However, in practice it is difficult to establish unique sets of properties using equilibrium conductivity alone. Combining equilibrium and conductivity-relaxationmeasurements serves to significantly improve the quantitative fidelity of the derived material properties. The models are developed using a Nernst-Planck-Poisson (NPP) formulation, which enables the quantitative representation of conductivity relaxations caused by very large changes in oxygen partial pressure.

Introduction to Control System PerformanceMeasurements presents the methods of dynamic measurements, specifically as they apply to control system and component testing. This book provides an introduction to the concepts of statistical measurement methods.Organized into nine chapters, this book begins with an overview of the applications of automatic control systems that pervade almost every area of activity ranging from servomechanisms to electrical power distribution networks. This text then discusses the common measurement transducer functions. Other chapters consider the basic wave

The purpose of this paper is to perform quantitative measurements of the magnetization transfer rate (Kfor) and native T1 relaxation time (T1free) in the brain tissue of normal individuals and patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) by means of multiple gradient echo acquisitions, and to correlate these measurements with the magnetization transfer ratio (MTR). Quantitative magnetization transfer imaging was performed in five normal volunteers and 12 patients with relapsing-remitting MS on a 1.5 T magnetic resonance (MR) scanner. The T1 relaxation time under magnetization transfer irradiation (T1sat) was calculated by means of fitting the signal intensity over the flip angle in several 3D spoiled gradient echo acquisitions (3 degrees , 15 degrees , 30 degrees , and 60 degrees ), while a single acquisition without MT irradiation (flip angle of 3 degrees ) was utilized to calculate the MTR. The Kfor and T1free constants were quantified on a pixel-by-pixel basis and parametric maps were reconstructed. We performed 226 measurements of Kfor, T1free, and the MTR on normal white matter (NWM) of healthy volunteers (n=50), and normal-appearing white matter (NAWM) and pathological brain areas of MS patients (n=120 and 56, respectively). Correlation coefficients between Kfor-MTR, T1free-MTR, and T1free-Kfor were calculated. Lesions were classified, according to their characteristics on T1-weighted images, into isointense (compared to white matter), mildly hypointense (showing signal intensity lower than white matter and higher than gray matter), and severely hypointense (revealing signal intensity lower than gray matter). "Dirty" white matter (DWM) corresponded to areas with diffused high signal, as identified on T2-weighted images. Strong correlation coefficients were obtained between MTR and Kfor for all lesions studied (r2=0.9, pKfor and T1free measurements (r2=0.98, pKfor and T1free were found for the rest of the subgroups, except for the NAWM, in which a moderate

The purpose of this paper is to perform quantitative measurements of the magnetization transfer rate (Kfor) and native T1 relaxation time (T1free) in the brain tissue of normal individuals and patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) by means of multiple gradient echo acquisitions, and to correlate these measurements with the magnetization transfer ratio (MTR). Quantitative magnetization transfer imaging was performed in five normal volunteers and 12 patients with relapsing-remitting MS on a 1.5 T magnetic resonance (MR) scanner. The T1 relaxation time under magnetization transfer irradiation (T1sat) was calculated by means of fitting the signal intensity over the flip angle in several 3D spoiled gradient echo acquisitions (3 , 15 , 30 , and 60 ), while a single acquisition without MT irradiation (flip angle of 3 ) was utilized to calculate the MTR. The Kfor and T1free constants were quantified on a pixel-by-pixel basis and parametric maps were reconstructed. We performed 226 measurements of Kfor, T1free, and the MTR on normal white matter (NWM) of healthy volunteers (n=50), and normal-appearing white matter (NAWM) and pathological brain areas of MS patients (n=120 and 56, respectively). Correlation coefficients between Kfor-MTR, T1free-MTR, and T1free-Kfor were calculated. Lesions were classified, according to their characteristics on T1-weighted images, into isointense (compared to white matter), mildly hypointense (showing signal intensity lower than white matter and higher than gray matter), and severely hypointense (revealing signal intensity lower than gray matter). ''Dirty'' white matter (DWM) corresponded to areas with diffused high signal, as identified on T2-weighted images. Strong correlation coefficients were obtained between MTR and Kfor for all lesions studied (r{sup 2}=0.9, p<0.0001), for mildly hypointense plaques (r{sup 2}=0.82, p<0.0001), and for DWM (r{sup 2}=0.78, p=0.0007). In contrast, comparison between MTR and T1free values

. The analysis uses and extends N rreklit's (2000) critique of the BSC by applying the concepts developed therein to contemporary research on the BSC and to the development of practice in performancemeasurement. The analysis is of relevance for many companies in the Asia-Pacific area as an increasing numbers......This article pursues two aims: to identify problems and dangers related to the operational use of internal performancemeasurement systems of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) type and to provide some guidance on how performancemeasurement systems may be designed to overcome these problems...

Distorted performancemeasures in compensation contracts elicit suboptimal behavioral responses that may even prove to be dysfunctional (gaming). This paper applies the empirical test developed by Courty and Marschke (2008) to detect whether the widely used class of Residual Income based...... performancemeasures —such as Economic Value Added (EVA)— is distorted, leading to unintended agent behavior. The paper uses a difference-in-differences approach to account for changes in economic circumstances and the self-selection of firms using EVA. Our findings indicate that EVA is a distorted...... performancemeasure that elicits the gaming response....

used class of residual income-based performancemeasures-such as economic value added (EVA)-is distorted, leading to unintended agent behavior. The paper uses a difference-in-differences approach to account for changes in economic circumstances and the self-selection of firms using EVA. Our findings......Distorted performancemeasures in compensation contracts elicit suboptimal behavioral responses that may even prove to be dysfunctional (gaming). This paper applies the empirical test developed by Courty and Marschke (Review of Economics and Statistics, 90, 428-441) to detect whether the widely...... indicate that EVA is a distorted performancemeasure that elicits the gaming response....

Site-directed spin labeling (SDSL) in combination with electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy has become an important tool for measuring distances in proteins on the order of a few nm. For this purpose pairs of spin labels, most commonly nitroxides, are site-selectively introduced into the protein. Recent efforts to develop new spin labels are focused on tailoring the intrinsic properties of the label to either extend the upper limit of measurable distances at physiological temperature, or to provide a unique spectral lineshape so that selective pairwise distances can be measured in a protein or complex containing multiple spin label species. Triarylmethyl (TAM) radicals are the foundation for a new class of spin labels that promise to provide both capabilities. Here we report a new methanethiosulfonate derivative of a TAM radical that reacts rapidly and selectively with an engineered cysteine residue to generate a TAM containing side chain (TAM1) in high yield. With a TAM1 residue and Cu2+ bound to an engineered Cu2+ binding site, enhanced T1 relaxation of TAM should enable measurement of interspin distances up to 50 Å at physiological temperature. To achieve favorable TAM1-labeled protein concentrations without aggregation, proteins are tethered to a solid support either site-selectively using an unnatural amino acid or via native lysine residues. The methodology is general and readily extendable to complex systems, including membrane proteins.

Full Text Available Peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN may constitute a significant fraction of reactive nitrogen in the atmosphere. Current knowledge about the biosphere–atmosphere exchange of PAN is limited and only few studies have investigated the deposition of PAN to terrestrial ecosystems. We developed a flux measurement system for the determination of biosphere–atmosphere exchange fluxes of PAN using both the hyperbolic relaxed eddy accumulation (HREA method and the modified Bowen ratio (MBR method. The system consists of a modified, commercially available gas chromatograph with electron capture detection (GC-ECD, Meteorologie Consult GmbH, Germany. Sampling was performed by trapping PAN onto two pre-concentration columns; during HREA operation one was used for updraft and one for downdraft events and during MBR operation the two columns allowed simultaneous sampling at two measurement heights. The performance of the PAN flux measurement system was tested at a natural grassland site, using fast response ozone (O3 measurements as a proxy for both methods. The measured PAN fluxes were comparatively small (daytime PAN deposition was on average −0.07 nmol m−2 s−1 and, thus, prone to significant uncertainties. A major challenge in the design of the system was the resolution of the small PAN mixing ratio differences. Consequently, the study focuses on the performance of the analytical unit and a detailed analysis of errors contributing to the overall uncertainty. The error of the PAN mixing ratio differences ranged from 4 to 15 ppt during the MBR and between 18 and 26 ppt during the HREA operation, while during daytime measured PAN mixing ratios were of similar magnitude. Choosing optimal settings for both the MBR and HREA method, the study shows that the HREA method did not have a significant advantage towards the MBR method under well mixed conditions as it was expected.

Nowadays, states spend more attention, time and money on performancemeasurement and evaluation in the public sector than ever before (OECD, 1996; Power, 1997; van Thiel et al., 2002). Result-based management is the talk of the day at all levels of the public sector; at local, regional, national...... explosion” and “the audit society” to describe this development. Some criticize this development. Thus, a number of critiques which suggest that public service performancemeasurement may in fact have no significant impact or even lead to negative effects on performance. Powers (1997, 2003) have argued...... middle- and upper-level officials, create massive paperwork, and produce major unintended effects.” Critics also argue that performancemeasures stifles innovation by rewarding conformity rather than risk-taking (fx. van Thiel et al., 2002). Thus, the scholarly discourse on public services performance...

The T1 relaxation times were estimated for 31P-metabolites in human skeletal muscle. Five healthy volunteers were examined in a 1.5 Tesla wholebody imaging system using an inversion recovery pulse sequence. The calculated T1 relaxation times ranged from 5.517 sec for phosphocreatine to 3.603 sec...

The dielectric behavior of native and heat-denatured lysozyme in ethanol-water solutions was examined in the frequency range from 1 MHz to 2 GHz, using frequency-domain dielectric relaxation spectroscopy. Because of the conformational changes on unfolding, dielectric methods provide information on the denaturation process of the protein and, at protein concentration high enough, on the subsequent aggregation and gelation. Moreover, the time evolution of the protein aggregation and gelation was monitored measuring, by means of dynamic light scattering methods, the diffusion coefficient of micro-sized polystyrene particles, deliberately added to the protein solution, which act as a probe of the viscosity of the microenvironment close to the particle surface. All together, our measurements indicate that heat-induced denaturation favors, at high concentrations, a protein aggregation process which evolves up to the full gelation of the system. These findings have a direct support from IR measurements of the absorbance of the amide I band that, because of the unfolding, indicate that proteins entangle each other, producing a network structure which evolves, in long time limit, in the gel.

Full Text Available The purpose of this case study was to describe the acute effects of contract-relax proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (cRPNF and static stretching (SS on hamstring flexibility, vertical jump performance and electromyography (EMG of vastus lateralis (VL, vastus medialis (VM and gastrocnemius (GAS in two sedentary males. Each participant completed 8 activities: warm-up, pre-stretching range of motion (ROM of hip, pre-stretching countermovement jump (cMJ, pre-stretching EMG recording, cRPNF or SS procedure, post-stretching ROM of hip, post-stretching cMJ and post-stretching EMG recording. The results of this study revealed that there were no significant increases in ROM of hip (25,34% and 24,19% and no significant decreases in cMJ (-8,67% and -8,17%, EMG activities of VL (-12,52% and -29,34%, VM (-13,02% and -32,80% and GAS (-20,63% and -24,81% following cRPNF and SS. There were no significant differences were found between both experimental groups for all variables (p > 0,05. It was concluded that cRPNF ans SS resulted in similar changes of ROM of the hip joint, cMJ and EMG activities of VL, VM and GAS muscles in sedentary males.

Describes a study of medical students that was conducted to evaluate measures of performance on factual searches of INQUIRER, a full-text database in microbiology. Measures relating to recall, precision, search term overlap, and efficiency are discussed; reliability and construct validity are considered; and implications for future research are…

We have developed a virtual reality (VR) simulator for phacoemulsification surgery. The current work aimed at developing a relative performance index that characterizes the performance of an individual trainee. We recorded measurements of 28 response variables during three iterated surgical sessions in 9 experienced cataract surgeons, separately for the sculpting phase and the evacuation phase of phacoemulsification surgery and compared their outcome to that of a reference group of naive trainees. We defined an individual overall performance index, an individual class specific performance index and an individual variable specific performance index. We found that on an average the experienced surgeons performed at a lower level than a reference group of naive trainees but that this was particularly attributed to a few surgeons. When their overall performance index was further analyzed as class specific performance index and variable specific performance index it was found that the low level performance was attributed to a behavior that is acceptable for an experienced surgeon but not for a naive trainee. It was concluded that relative performance indices should use a reference group that corresponds to the measured individual since the definition of optimal surgery may vary among trainee groups depending on their level of experience.

Fatigue is a frequent problem after surgical treatment of solid tumours. Aerobic exercise and psychosocial interventions have been shown to reduce the severity of this symptom in cancer patients. Therefore, we compared the effect of the two therapies on fatigue in a randomised controlled study. Seventy-two patients who underwent surgery for lung (n=27) or gastrointestinal tumours (n=42) were assigned to an aerobic exercise group (stationary biking 30 min five times weekly) or a progressive relaxation training group (45 min three times per week). Both interventions were carried out for 3 weeks. At the beginning and the end of the study, we evaluated physical, cognitive and emotional status and somatic complaints with the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core Module (EORTC-QLQ-30) questionnaire, and maximal physical performance with an ergometric stress test. Physical performance of the training group improved significantly during the programme (9.4+/-20 watts, p=0.01) but remained unchanged in the relaxation group (1.5+/-14.8 watts, p=0.37). Fatigue and global health scores improved in both groups during the intervention (fatigue: training group 21%, relaxation group 19%; global health of both groups 19%, p for all training programme improves the physical performance of patients recovering from surgery for solid tumours. However, exercise is not better than progressive relaxation training for the treatment of fatigue in this setting.

Full Text Available The aim of this research is to analyze the shariah stock performance using risk adjusted performance method. There are three parameters to measure the stock performance i.e. Sharpe, Treynor, and Jensen. This performance’s measurements calculate the return and risk factor from shariah stocks. The data that used on this research is using the data of stocks at Jakarta Islamic Index. Sampling method that used on this paper is purposive sampling. This research is using ten companies as a sample. The result shows that from three parameters, the stock that have a best performance are AALI, ANTM, ASII, CPIN, INDF, KLBF, LSIP, and UNTR.DOI: 10.15408/aiq.v7i1.1364

Parallels exist between the competitive pressures felt by U.S. manufacturers over the past 30 years and those experienced by healthcare providers today. Increasing market deregulation, changing government policies, and growing consumerism have altered the healthcare arena. Responding to similar pressures, manufacturers adopted a strategic orientation driven by customer needs and expectations that led them to achieve high performance levels and surpass their competition. The adoption of integrated performance-measurement systems was instrumental in these firms' success. An integrated performance-measurement model for healthcare organizations can help to blend the organization's strategy with the demands of the contemporary healthcare environment. Performance-measurement systems encourage healthcare organizations to focus on their mission and vision by aligning their strategic objectives and resource-allocation decisions with customer requirements.

The PROOF benchmark suite is a new utility suite of PROOF to measureperformance and scalability. The primary goal of the benchmark suite is to determine optimal configuration parameters for a set of machines to be used as PROOF cluster. The suite measures the performance of the cluster for a set of standard tasks as a function of the number of effective processes. Cluster administrators can use the suite to measure the performance of the cluster and find optimal configuration parameters. PROOF developers can also utilize the suite to help them measure, identify problems and improve their software. In this paper, the new tool is explained in detail and use cases are presented to illustrate the new tool.

A method based on the Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill relaxation dispersion experiment is presented for measuring the temperature coefficients of amide proton chemical shifts of low populated 'invisible' protein states that exchange with a 'visible' ground state on the millisecond time-scale. The utility of the approach is demonstrated with an application to an I58D mutant of the Pfl6 Cro protein that undergoes exchange between the native, folded state and a cold denatured, unfolded conformational ensemble that is populated at a level of 6% at 2.5 Degree-Sign C. A wide distribution of amide temperature coefficients is measured for the unfolded state. The distribution is centered about -5.6 ppb/K, consistent with an absence of intra-molecular hydrogen bonds, on average. However, the large range of values (standard deviation of 2.1 ppb/K) strongly supports the notion that the unfolded state of the protein is not a true random coil polypeptide chain.

Spin-lattice relaxation time (T{sub 1}) of phosphorus compounds in the perfused heart, liver, kidney and erythrocytes of rats were measured by the DESPOT (Driven-equilibrium single-pulse observation of T{sub 1}) method at 8.45 T. This method is a rapid and accurate technique for the measurement of T{sub 1} values. T{sub 1} values of phosphomonoesters (PME), 2, 3-diphosphoglycerate (DPG), inorganic phosphate (Pi), phosphodiesters (PDE), phosphocreatine (PCr) and three phosphates of ATP were ranged from 0.15 {plus minus} 0.02 sec (beta-ATP in the liver) to 8.5 {plus minus} 1.6 sec (PDE in the kidney). T{sub 1} value of beta-ATP in the liver was 1/4-1/5 of those in the mandibular gland, heart, erythrocytes and kidney. T{sub 1} values obtained from biological materials are useful for selecting the optimal pulse repetition times and pulse angles to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio of {sup 13}P spectra, and for correcting distortions of signal intensities in the spectra. (author).

Solid-state NMR (SSNMR) can provide detailed structural information about amorphous solid dispersions of pharmaceutical small molecules. In this study, the ability of SSNMR experiments based on dipolar correlation, spin diffusion, and relaxationmeasurements to characterize the structure of solid dispersions is explored. Observation of spin diffusion effects using the 2D (1)H-(13)C cross-polarization heteronuclear correlation (CP-HETCOR) experiment is shown to be a useful probe of association between the amorphous drug and polymer that is capable of directly proving glass solution formation. Dispersions of acetaminophen and indomethacin in different polymers are examined using this approach, as well as (1)H double-quantum correlation experiments to probe additional structural features. (1)H-(19)F CP-HETCOR serves a similar role for fluorinated drug molecules such as diflunisal in dispersions, providing a rapid means to prove the formation of a glass solution. Phase separation is detected using (13)C, (19)F, and (23)Na-detected (1)H T(1) experiments in crystalline and amorphous solid dispersions that contain small domains. (1)H T(1) measurements of amorphous nanosuspensions of trehalose and dextran illustrate the ability of SSNMR to detect domain size effects in dispersions that are not glass solutions via spin diffusion effects. Two previously unreported amorphous solid dispersions involving up to three components and containing voriconazole and telithromycin are analyzed using these experiments to demonstrate the general applicability of the approach.

We present an upgrade to the time-of-flight neutron reflectometer BioRef at the research reactor BER II of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie (HZB). Through the integration of an additional chopper into the existing setup, the available wavelength resolution is significantly extended. Now two distinct operation modes can be used: a high resolution mode with Δλ/λ ranging from 1% to 5%, which allows for the investigation of thick films up to 4000 Å, and a high flux mode with Δλ/λ = 7%-11%. In the high flux mode, reflectivity curves from 0.007 Å-1 to 0.2 Å-1 with three angular settings can be recorded in 7 min. For a single angular setting and its respective window in Q-space, a time resolution of even less than 4 min is reached. The different configurations are documented by respective measurements (a) on a Ni-Ti multilayer and (b) the swelling kinetics of a solid-supported phospholipid coating upon incubation in a polyelectrolyte solution.

Full Text Available The financial performance of a responsibility center is measured on the basis of specific indicators of the nature center. To obtain a relevant and consistent images relating to the performance of an entity is required to use a system of indicators. Performance indicators of the structure it needs to capture at the same time, at least the following aspects: the objectives of the entity, its strategy, efficacy and effectiveness of activities carried out, the entity's ability to adapt to the requirements of the market in which they operate. Financial indicators of performance are the most objective, because most businesses give important resources for the activities of audit and control.

Background: The literature has identified that children's performance can be impaired by anxiety. Anxiety can lead to tension, stress, avoidance behaviour, and inhibit performance. Progressive muscular relaxation (PMR) and self-hypnosis (SH) have been identified in the literature as approaches to address anxiety.;Aims: This study questions whether anxiety in students can be successfully reduced by teaching students to apply two particular self help approaches PMR or SH and whether SH is more ...

Full Text Available Significant actions have been taken to define the concept of performancemeasurement. Many researchers have been discussing and developing this topic. Also, not only in the recent literature are many studies regarding the topic, but now are more than ever. At international level, International Public Sector Accounting Standard Board took the decision to develop a framework for reporting service performancemeasurement that focuses on meeting the needs of intended users. In this way, around the world, will be a uniform understanding and applicability for performancemeasurement. This paper analyzes the concept of performancemeasurement. The main objective of the paper is to do a review of the definitions received by the concept in time, thus a qualitative approach will be used. Furthermore, this paper tries to examine the changes which occurred in public universities due to the budget constraints. Performancemeasurement plays a central role because, in this way, universities prove their accountability and to show the way in which they have value the money.

Vascular smooth muscle cells (SMCs) undergo a phenotypic change from a contractile to a synthetic state under pathological conditions, such as atherogenesis and restenosis. Although the viscoelastic properties of SMCs are of particular interest because of their role in the development of these vascular diseases, the effects of phenotypic changes on their viscoelastic properties are unclear at this stage. We performed the stress relaxation test at constant strain (ε=30%) for the freshly isolated contractile SMCs (FSMCs) and the cultured synthetic SMCs (CSMCs) maintaining in situ cell shape and cytoskeletal integrity. We also investigated the effect of extracellular Ca2+ on their viscoelastic behaviors. FSMCs and CSMCs exhibited multiphasic stress relaxation, which consisted of rapid relaxation, occurring on a time scale of several seconds and several 10 seconds, and slow relaxation occurring on a time scale of 1000 seconds. The estimated elastic modulus of CSMCs was less than one-half that of FSMCs, that was associated with a decreased of amount of actin stress fibers (SFs) during the transition from contractile to synthetic phenotypes. FSMCs showed a conservation of tension with extracellular Ca2+ following rapid stress relaxation. In contrast, CSMCs showed a consecutive decrease in tension independent of Ca2+. This suggests that the decrease in tension in a long time scale may be involved in mechanical remodeling of SFs induced through a Rho-dependent pathway, which is Ca2+-independent and become predominant in the transition from contractile to synthetic phenotypes.

Telerobotic systems (TRSs) and shared teleautonomous systems result from the integration of multiple sophisticated modules. Procedures used in systems integration design decision-making of such systems are frequently ad hoc compared to more quantitative and systematic methods employed elsewhere in engineering. Experimental findings associated with verification and validation (V&V) are often application-specific. Furthermore, models and measurement strategies do not exist which allow prediction of overall TRS performance in a given task based on knowledge of the performance characteristics of individual subsystems. This paper introduces the use of general systems performance theory (GSPT), developed by the senior author to help resolve similar problems in human performance, as a basis for: (1) measurement of overall TRS performance (viewing all system components, including the operator, as a single entity); (2) task decomposition; (3) development of a generic TRS model; and (4) the characterization of performance of subsystems comprising the generic model. GSPT uses a resource construct to model performance and resource economic principles to govern the interface of systems to tasks. It provides a comprehensive modeling/measurement strategy applicable to complex systems including both human and artificial components. Application is presented in the context of a distributed telerobotics network (Universities Space Automation and Robotics Consortium) as a testbed. Insight into the design of test protocols which elicit application-independent data (i.e., multi-purpose or reusable) is described. Although the work is motivated by space automation and robotics challenges, it is considered to be applicable to telerobotic systems in general.

Strain evolution during In0.2Ga0.8As/GaAs (001) growth by molecular beam epitaxy has been monitored in real time. We have detected that three main relaxation stages, related to different mechanisms, take place during growth, and we have obtained the thickness range where those mechanisms are active. The in situ measuredrelaxation behavior in the plastic stages has been described by means of a simple equilibrium model that takes into account dislocations generation and interaction between the...

Nine patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) were examined with magnetic resonance imaging and in vivo T1 relaxation time measurements of the vertebral bone marrow in a 1.5 tesla whole body scanner. Two patients underwent transformation to acute myeloid leukemia and were evaluated at follow...

The epitaxial structure design of low-temperature barriers has been adopted to promote strain relaxation in multiple quantum well (MQWs) and achieve high-efficient GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs). With these barriers, the relaxation value of wells increases from 0 to 4.59%. The strain-relaxed mechanism of low-temperature barriers is also discussed. The LED chip with the barriers grown at the TMIn flow of 75 sccm and the growth temperature of 830 °C has an optimal strain relaxation value of 1.53% in wells, and exhibits the largest light output power of 63.83 mW at the injection current of 65 mA, which is higher than that of conventional LED (51.89 mW) by 23%. In-depth studies reveal that the optimal low-temperature barriers remarkably promote the strain relaxation in wells without forming large density of crystalline defects. This achievement of high-efficiency LEDs sheds light on the future solid-state lighting applications.

This document provides standard definitions of performance metrics and methods to determine them for the energy performance of building interior lighting systems. It can be used for existing buildings and for proposed buildings. The primary users for whom these documents are intended are building energy analysts and technicians who design, install, and operate data acquisition systems, and who analyze and report building energy performance data. Typical results from the use of this procedure are the monthly and annual energy used for lighting, energy savings from occupancy or daylighting controls, and the percent of the total building energy use that is used by the lighting system. The document is not specifically intended for retrofit applications. However, it does complement Measurement and Verification protocols that do not provide detailed performance metrics or measurement procedures.

This document provides standard definitions of performance metrics and methods to determine them for the energy performance of building interior lighting systems. It can be used for existing buildings and for proposed buildings. The primary users for whom these documents are intended are building energy analysts and technicians who design, install, and operate data acquisition systems, and who analyze and report building energy performance data. Typical results from the use of this procedure are the monthly and annual energy used for lighting, energy savings from occupancy or daylighting controls, and the percent of the total building energy use that is used by the lighting system. The document is not specifically intended for retrofit applications. However, it does complement Measurement and Verification protocols that do not provide detailed performance metrics or measurement procedures.

Any significant management action can be assessed both in terms of success of immediate goals and as effect of the organization ability to embrace change. Market competition intensifies with the development of Romanian society and its needs. Companies that offer different products and services need to impose certain advantages and to increase their performances. The paper will present modern tools for measuring and evaluating organizational performance, namely: Balanced Scorecard, Deming mode...

Current implementations of Grid infrastructures provide frameworks which aim at achieve on-demand computing. In such a scenario, contribution and use of resources will be governed by business models. The challenge is to provide multi-level performance information which enables the participation of the different actors in such a system. In this paper we describe the performancemeasuring framework developed for Grid Market Middleware, a middleware which supports economic-model based selection ...

Integrated diffusion tensor T(2) measurements were made on normal and edematous rat muscle, and the data were fitted with one- and two-compartment models, respectively. Edematous muscle exhibited a short-lived component (T(2) = 28 +/- 6 ms), with diffusion characteristics similar to that of normal muscle, and a long-lived component (T(2) = 96 +/- 27 ms), with greater mean apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and lower fractional anisotropy (FA). With this two-component description of diffusion and relaxation, values of ADC and FA estimated with a conventional pulsed-gradient spin-echo sequence will depend on the echo time, relative fraction of short-lived and long-lived water signals, and the intrinsic ADC and FA values within the tissue. On the basis of the relative differences in water diffusion properties between long-lived and short-lived water signals, as well as the similarities between the short-lived component and normal tissue, it is postulated that these two signal components largely reflect intracellular and extracellular water.

Terpenoids emitted from forests contribute to the formation of secondary organic aerosols and affect the carbon budgets of forest ecosystems. To investigate seasonal variation in terpenoid flux involved in the aerosol formation and carbon budget, we measured the terpenoid flux of a Larix kaempferi forest between May 2011 and May 2012 by using a relaxed eddy accumulation method. Isoprene was emitted from a fern plant species Dryopteris crassirhizoma on the forest floor and monoterpenes from the L. kaempferi. α-Pinene was the dominant compound, but seasonal variation of the monoterpene composition was observed. High isoprene and monoterpene fluxes were observed in July and August. The total monoterpene flux was dependent on temperature, but several unusual high positive fluxes were observed after rain fall events. We found a good correlation between total monoterpene flux and volumetric soil water content (r = 0.88), and used this correlation to estimate monoterpene flux after rain events and calculate annual terpenoid emissions. Annual carbon emission in the form of total monoterpenes plus isoprene was determined to be 0.93% of the net ecosystem exchange. If we do not consider the effect of rain fall, carbon emissions may be underestimated by about 50%. Our results suggest that moisture conditions in the forest soil is a key factor controlling the monoterpene emissions from the forest ecosystem.

The dynamic properties of relaxing skeletal muscle have not been well characterised but are important for understanding muscle function during terrestrial locomotion, during which a considerable fraction of muscle work output can be produced during relaxation. The purpose of this study was to characterise the force-velocity properties of mouse skeletal muscle during relaxation. Experiments were performed in vitro (21 degrees C) using bundles of fibres from mouse soleus and EDL muscles. Isovelocity shortening was applied to muscles during relaxation following short tetanic contractions. Using data from different contractions with different shortening velocities, curves relating force output to shortening velocity were constructed at intervals during relaxation. The velocity component included contributions from shortening of both series elastic component (SEC) and contractile component (CC) because force output was not constant. Early in relaxation force-velocity relationships were linear but became progressively more curved as relaxation progressed. Force-velocity curves late in relaxation had the same curvature as those for the CC in fully activated muscles but V(max) was reduced to approximately 50% of the value in fully activated muscles. These results were the same for slow- and fast-twitch muscles and for relaxation following maximal tetani and brief, sub-maximal tetani. The measured series elastic compliance was used to partition shortening velocity between SEC and CC. The curvature of the CC force-velocity relationship was constant during relaxation. The SEC accounted for most of the shortening and work output during relaxation and its power output during relaxation exceeded the maximum CC power output. It is proposed that unloading the CC, without any change in its overall length, accelerated cross-bridge detachment when shortening was applied during relaxation.

There are no easily obtainable EPR spectral parameters for lipid spin labels that describe profiles of membrane fluidity. The order parameter, which is most often used as a measure of membrane fluidity, describes the amplitude of wobbling motion of alkyl chains relative to the membrane normal and does not contain explicitly time or velocity. Thus, this parameter can be considered as nondynamic. The spin-lattice relaxation rate (T(1)(-1)) obtained from saturation-recovery EPR measurements of lipid spin labels in deoxygenated samples depends primarily on the rotational correlation time of the nitroxide moiety within the lipid bilayer. Thus, T(1)(-1) can be used as a convenient quantitative measure of membrane fluidity that reflects local membrane dynamics. T(1)(-1) profiles obtained for 1-palmitoyl-2-(n-doxylstearoyl)phosphatidylcholine (n-PC) spin labels in dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) membranes with and without 50 mol% cholesterol are presented in parallel with profiles of the rotational diffusion coefficient, R(⊥), obtained from simulation of EPR spectra using Freed's model. These profiles are compared with profiles of the order parameter obtained directly from EPR spectra and with profiles of the order parameter obtained from simulation of EPR spectra. It is shown that T(1)(-1) and R(⊥) profiles reveal changes in membrane fluidity that depend on the motional properties of the lipid alkyl chain. We find that cholesterol has a rigidifying effect only to the depth occupied by the rigid steroid ring structure and a fluidizing effect at deeper locations. These effects cannot be differentiated by profiles of the order parameter. All profiles in this study were obtained at X-band (9.5 GHz).

Most of the models that are used to describe the nonelastic behavior of materials utilize stress-strain rate relations which can be obtained by a load relaxation test. The conventional load relaxation test, however, cannot be performed if the volume of the material to be tested is very small. For such applications the indentation type of test offers an attractive means of obtaining data necessary for materials characterization. In this work the feasibility of the indentation load relaxation test is studied. Experimental techniques are described together with results on Al, Cu and 316 SS. These results are compared to those of conventional uniaxial load relaxation tests, and the conversion of the load-indentation rate data into the stress-strain rate data is discussed.

Off-resonance spin locking makes use of the novel relaxation time T_{1rho} ^{rm off}, which may be useful in characterizing breast disease. Knowledge of T _{rm 1rho}^{rm off} is essential for optimization of spin -locking imaging methods. The purpose of this work was to develop an optimal imaging technique for in vivo measurement of T_{rm 1rho}^ {rm off}. Measurement of T _{1rho}^{rm off } using conventional methods requires long exam times which are not suitable for patients. Exam time may be shortened by utilizing a one-shot method developed by Look and Locker, making in vivo measurements possible. The imaging method consisted of a 180^circ inversion pulse followed by a series of small-angle alpha pulses to tip a portion of the longitudinal magnetization into the transverse plane for readout. During each relaxation interval (between alpha pulses), a spin-locking pulse was applied off-resonance to achieve T_ {1rho}^{rm off} relaxation. The value of T_{rm 1rho}^{rm off} was then determined using a three-parameter non-linear least-squares fitting procedure. Values of T_ {1rho}^{rm off} were measured for normal and pathologic breast tissues at several resonant offsets. These measurements revealed that image contrast can be manipulated by altering the resonant offset of the spin-locking pulse. Whereas T _1 relaxation times were nearly identical for normal and cancerous tissues, T_{1 rho}^{rm off} relaxation times differed significantly. These results may be useful in improving image contrast in magnetic resonance imaging.

textabstractAll organisations have social, environmental and economic impacts that effect people, their communities and the natural environment. Impacts include intended as well as unintended effects and negative as well as positive effects. Current practice in performancemeasurement tends to focus

textabstractAll organisations have social, environmental and economic impacts that effect people, their communities and the natural environment. Impacts include intended as well as unintended effects and negative as well as positive effects. Current practice in performancemeasurement tends to focus

for innovation implementation based on a case study in the pharmaceutical industry. The results of 25 expert interviews and a survey with 67 respondents led to the resulting framework and a corresponding performancemeasurement system. The results reveal the importance of supporting systems and show differences...

to provide, and are highly policy specific rendering generalization difficult. But are perceptual performancemeasures valid, and do they generate unbiased findings? We examine these questions in a comparative study of middle managers in schools in Texas and Denmark. The findings are remarkably similar...

The paper used an in depth case study to investigate how firms can integrate the strategic performancemeasurement of R&D with the Balanced Scorecard. Moreover, the paper investigated the crucial role of controller in the decision making process of this integration.The literature review of R&D ma...

Currently, the need for R&D performancemeasurements that are both practically useful and theoretically sound seems to be generally acknowledged; indeed, the rising cost of R&D, greater emphasis on value management and a trend towards decentralization are escalating the need for ways of evaluating

Many evaluators are convinced that Results-based PerformanceMeasurement (RBPM) is an effective tool to improve service delivery and cost effectiveness in both public and private sectors. Successful RBPM requires self-directed and cross-functional work teams and the supporting infrastructure to make it work. There are many misconceptions and…

Currently, the need for R&D performancemeasurements that are both practically useful and theoretically sound seems to be generally acknowledged; indeed, the rising cost of R&D, greater emphasis on value management and a trend towards decentralization are escalating the need for ways of evaluating t

Evaluating a company's performance often entails wading through a thicket of numbers produced by a few simple metrics, writes the author, and senior executives leave measurement to those whose specialty is spreadsheets. To take ownership of performance assessment, those executives should find qualitative, forward-looking measures that will help them avoid five common traps: Measuring against yourself. Find data from outside the company, and reward relative, rather than absolute, performance. Enterprise Rent-A-Car uses a service quality index to measure customers' repeat purchase intentions. Looking backward. Use measures that lead rather than lag the profits in your business. Humana, a health insurer, found that the sickest 10% of its patients account for 80% of its costs; now it offers customers incentives for early screening. Putting your faith in numbers. The soft drinks company Britvic evaluates its executive coaching program not by trying to assign it an ROI number but by tracking participants' careers for a year. Gaming your metrics. The law firm Clifford Chance replaced its single, easy-to-game metric of billable hours with seven criteria on which to base bonuses. Sticking to your numbers too long. Be precise about what you want to assess and explicit about what metrics are assessing it. Such clarity would have helped investors interpret the AAA ratings involved in the financial meltdown. Really good assessment will combine finance managers' relative independence with line managers' expertise.

A main problem in maintenance in general, and in power plants and related equipment in particular, is the lack of a practical, consistent, and adaptive performancemeasure that provides a focused feedback and integrates preventive and corrective modes of maintenance. The presentation defines concepts of world class and benchmarking. Desirable features in an appropriate performancemeasure are identified. It then, demonstrates current practices in maintenance and criticises their shortcomings. An alternative model is presented through a case study. The model monitors performance from a general view, and then offers a focused analysis. The main conclusion is that the proposed model offers an adaptive and a dynamic framework, and hence production and maintenance are integrated in a `real time` environment. The system is also flexible in working with any other criteria whether they are of a quantitative or a qualitative nature. (orig.) 16 refs.

&D management evidenced the limits of Balanced Scorecard to manage and monitor the R&D activities. Therefore, the firms have to create a specific performancemeasurement system and to link it with the macroindicators of Balanced Scorecard. The controller has a central role in the selection of non...... and in the organizational learning process connected to the feedbackprocess. The study offers an example of integration of R&D performance management with Balanced Scorecard and it contributes to the literature review about the role of controller in a complex system control environment.......The paper used an in depth case study to investigate how firms can integrate the strategic performancemeasurement of R&D with the Balanced Scorecard. Moreover, the paper investigated the crucial role of controller in the decision making process of this integration.The literature review of R...

Full Text Available Business conditions in which modern enterprises do business are more and more complex. The complexity of the business environment is caused by activities of external and internal factors, which imposes the need for the turn in management focus. One of key turns is related to the need of adaptation and development of new business performance evaluation systems. The evaluation of marketing contribution to business performance is very important however a complex task as well. The marketing theory and practice indicates the need for developing adequate standards and systems for evaluating the efficiency of marketing decisions. The better understanding of marketing standards and ways that managers use is a very important factor that affects the efficiency of strategic decision-making. The paper presents the results of researching the way in which managers perceive and apply marketing performancemeasures. The data that were received through the field research sample enabled the consideration of the managers' attitudes on practical ways of implementing marketing performancemeasurement and identifying measures that managers imply as used mostly in business practice.

The underlying purpose of the Department of Energy`s (DOE) Waste Minimization and Pollution Prevention (WMin/P2) Program is compliance with the waste management regulations set forth by the DOE, the federal government, and individual state and local agencies 1. In addition to these regulatory mandates, the increases in waste management costs and public interest in environmental issues have created other drivers to develop and demonstrate an effective WMin/P2 Program. The Waste Minimization Division (EM-334) must have adequate methods to calculate and roll up pollution prevention (P2) progress to meet the WMin/P2 requirements; these requirements support DOE and national objectives and direct funding. This document outlines a system to evaluate DOE`s P2 progress towards the waste reduction requirements. The emphasis of these pollution prevention measurements is to evaluate whether P2 activities are effective, (i.e., has the required amount of waste been reduced as a result of the P2 activities) and to evaluate the cost management of P2 projects. The performance evaluation system presented in this document encompass these aspects: (1) site requirements that apply to all DOE waste generating organizations, (2) a baseline that is not affected by short-term waste generation, and (3) key indicators that can be rolled up across DOE sites and across specific Cognizant Secretarial Officers` (CSO) sites. In a performance-based management system, requirements are the fundamental link between the planning and measurement process. The site requirements are {open_quotes}targets{close_quotes} at the process or activity level. Measuring DOE`s P2 progress toward these requirements provides the necessary feedback to (1) compare performance with the requirements/standards (i.e., whether the reduction requirement of 50% by 1999 is achievable) (2) detect departures from planned levels of performance, and (3) restore performance to the planned levels or achieve new levels of performance.

Companies in increasing numbers are measuring customer loyalty, employee satisfaction, and other nonfinancial areas of performance that they believe affect profitability. But they've failed to relate these measures to their strategic goals or establish a connection between activities undertaken and financial outcomes achieved. Failure to make such connections has led many companies to misdirect their investments and reward ineffective managers. Extensive field research now shows that businesses make some common mistakes when choosing, analyzing, and acting on their nonfinancial measures. Among these mistakes: They set the wrong performance targets because they focus too much on short-term financial results, and they use metrics that lack strong statistical validity and reliability. As a result, the companies can't demonstrate that improvements in nonfinancial measures actually affect their financial results. The authors lay out a series of steps that will allow companies to realize the genuine promise of nonfinancial performancemeasures. First, develop a model that proposes a causal relationship between the chosen nonfinancial drivers of strategic success and specific outcomes. Next, take careful inventory of all the data within your company. Then use established statistical methods for validating the assumed relationships and continue to test the model as market conditions evolve. Finally, base action plans on analysis of your findings, and determine whether those plans and their investments actually produce the desired results. Nonfinancial measures will offer little guidance unless you use a process for choosing and analyzing them that relies on sophisticated quantitative and qualitative inquiries into the factors actually contributing to economic results.

Full Text Available The paper aims to assess how economic benchmarking is being used by airports as a means of performancemeasurement and comparison of major international airports in the world. The study focuses on current benchmarking practices and methods by taking into account different factors according to which it is efficient to benchmark airports performance. As methods are considered mainly data envelopment analysis and stochastic frontier analysis. Apart from them other approaches are discussed by airports to provide economic benchmarking. The main objective of this article is to evaluate the efficiency of the airports and answer some undetermined questions involving economic benchmarking of the airports.

Author performance indices (such as h-index and its variants) fail to resolve ties while ranking authors with low index values (majority in number) which includes the young researchers. In this work we leverage the citations as well as collaboration profile of an author in a novel way using a weighted multi-layered network and propose a variant of page-rank algorithm to obtain a new author performancemeasure, $C^3$-index. Experiments on a massive publication dataset reveal several interestin...

Full Text Available Any significant management action can be assessed both in terms of success of immediate goals and as effect of the organization ability to embrace change. Market competition intensifies with the development of Romanian society and its needs. Companies that offer different products and services need to impose certain advantages and to increase their performances. The paper will present modern tools for measuring and evaluating organizational performance, namely: Balanced Scorecard, Deming model and Baldrige model. We also present an example for Balance Scorecard, of an organizations belonging to the cosmetics industry.

The presented work is a part of comprehensive study aimed at thorough characterization of carbon cycle in the urban environment of Krakow, southern Poland. In the framework of this study two independent methods were employed to quantify biogenic CO2 flux in the city: (i) closed chambers, and (ii) Relaxed Eddy Accumulation (REA). The results of a three-day intensive intercomparison campaign performed in July 2013 and utilizing both measurement methods are reported here. The chamber method is a widely used approach for measurements of gas exchange between the soil and the atmosphere. The system implemented in this study consisted of a single chamber operating in a closed-dynamic mode, combined with Vaisala CarboCAP infrared CO2 sensor in a mobile setup. An alternative flux measurement method, covering larger area is represented by REA, which is a modification of the eddy covariance method. It consists of a 3D anemometer (Gill Windmaster Pro) and the system collecting updraft and downdraft samples to 5-litre Tedlar bags. The CO2 mixing ratios in the collected samples are measured by Picarro G2101i analyzer. The setup consists of two sets of bags so that the sampling can be performed continuously with 15-min temporal resolution. A 48-hectares open meadow located close the city center was chosen as a test site for comparison of the two methods of CO2 flux measurements outlined above. In the middle of the meadow a 3-metre high tripod was installed with the anemometer and REA inlet system. For a period of 46 hours the system was measuring net CO2 flux from the surrounding area. A meteorological conditions and intensity of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) were also recorded. In the same time, CO2 flux from several points around the REA inlet was measured with the chamber system, resulting in 93 values for both respiration and net CO2 flux. Chamber results show rather homogenous distribution of the soil CO2 flux (the mean value equal to 40.9 ± 2.2 mmol/m2h), with

The end-to-end performance of a program implementing IEEE Std 802.2 logical link control protocol, which provides virtual circuit and datagram service and which constitutes the top sublayer of the data link layer of the reference model for Local Area Networks is studied. The measurements of relative execution times of various functions required in transferring data, over virtual circuits or as datagrams, showed that most of the program execution time is spent in a few relatively low-level functions. One of these functions performs block movement of data in memory, and two other functions provide access to various queues. Based on this result, two alternative versions of the program which move data efficiently were written and measured. In this paper the results of the study are reported and their impact on designing hardware and software systems for a network interface are discussed.

station, as shown in Figure 11, must permit the transformacion of data collected through the five avenues shown in Figure 9 into a digital format...Measureti\\ent System: The performancemeasurement system consists of the following subsystems: (1) Data Acquisition. A hybrid audio/video/photo/ digital ...processing is provided. (2) Data Processing. A general purpose digital computer with standard peripherals is required, hi addition to executive and

At the SRS at Daresbury Laboratory, we are undertaking a programme comparing the results from efficiency calculations of diffraction gratings, mainly using the GRADIF code of Neviere, with measured efficiencies. The deviations from the predicted performance are larger for higher orders than for first order. Higher order contamination is important in determining the usability of the beamline for certain types of experiments, particularly at energies below 100 eV.

At the SRS at Daresbury Laboratory, we are undertaking a programme comparing the results from efficiency calculations of diffraction gratings, mainly using the GRADIF code of Neviere, with measured efficiencies. The deviations from the predicted performance are larger for higher orders than for first order. Higher order contamination is important in determining the usability of the beamline for certain types of experiments, particularly at energies below 100 eV.

Vollman , 1990, p. 37). The use of self-directed work teams in this study, to make changes to the PerformanceMeasurement Systems, using personnel from all...strategy and goals of the organization (Atkinson, et al, 1991, p. 86; Ernst and Young, 1990, p. 163). And as Dixon, Nanni and Vollman (1991) point out, a...Reaaining the Productive Edae, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1990. Dixon, J.R., Nanni, A.J., and Vollman , T.E., The N Performancge Challenge

Full Text Available Each organization for assessing the amount of utility and desirability of their activities, especially in complex and dynamic environments, requires determining and ranking the vital performance indicators. Indicators provide essential links among strategy, execution and ultimate value creation. The aim of this paper is to develop a framework, which identifies and prioritizes Key Performance Indicators (KPIs that a company should focus on them to define and measure progress towards organizational objectives. For this purpose, an applied research was conducted in 2013 in an Iranian telecommunication company. We first determined the objectives of the company with respect to four perspectives of BSC (Balanced Scorecard framework. Next, performance indicators were listed and paired wise comparisons were accomplished by company's high-ranked employees through standard Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP questionnaires. This helped us establish the weight of each indicator and to rank them, accordingly.

Full Text Available The aims of this study were to determine whether standard extracellular contrast agents of Gd(III ions in combination with a polymeric entity susceptible to hydrolytic degradation over a finite period of time, such as Hyaluronic Acid (HA, have sufficient vascular residence time to obtain comparable vascular imaging to current conventional compounds and to obtain sufficient data to show proof of concept that HA with Gd-DTPA ligands could be useful as vascular imaging agents. We assessed the dynamic relaxivity of the HA bound DTPA compounds using a custom-made phantom, as well as relaxation rates at 10.72 MHz with concentrations ranging between 0.09 and 7.96 mM in phosphate-buffered saline. Linear dependences of static longitudinal relaxation rate (R1 on concentration were found for most measured samples, and the HA samples continued to produce high signal strength after 24 hours after injection into a dialysis cassette at 3T, showing superior dynamic relaxivity values compared to conventional contrast media such as Gd-DTPA-BMA.

Full Text Available The use of passive shutters to control the duration of the light pulses is an important aspect in the miniature and microchip lasers. One of the key spectroscopic characteristics which determine the properties of the material, which can be used as a passive shutter is relaxation time of its bleached state.We describe a device for determination of relaxation time of the bleached state in optical materials by the «pump-probe» method in the sub-μs time domain. This device allows one to determine relaxation times for materials which absorb at the light wavelength of 1.5 μm, e.g., materials doped with cobalt ions Co2+. The results of test examinations of the device are described, and the relaxation time of the bleached state of Co2+ ions is measured for a novel material – transparent glass-ceramics with Co2+:Ga2 O3 nanophase – amounting to 190 ± 6 ns.

The comparative performance of fifteen different color-measuring instruments was studied for precision (short-term repeatability) and accuracy of color measurement and of color difference measurement. For estimates of accuracy, a GE spectrophotometer was considered the referee instrument. The instruments tested included two integrating sphere spectrophotometers, six integrating sphere colorimeters (four of which were individually calibrated for close conformance to CIE coordinates), and seven 45 degrees / normal calorimeters (four of which were individually calibrated for close conformance to CIE coordinates). Up to fifty-three samples were measured, most of them several times, on each instrument. Paint panels, plastics, porcelain enamels, and ceramic tiles were among the samples used. Overall, the well-established IDL D-1 Signature Color-Eye colorimeter-abridged spectrophotometer and the Hunter D25 Color and Color Difference Meter demonstrated the best and next best performance, respectively, in all categories. Several other instruments, both well established and new, were outstanding in one or more respects. All production instruments tested gave generally satisfactory results.

Mechanical and physical properties of ceramic bodies can be difficult to measure correctly unless the proper techniques are used. The Advanced Ceramics Committee of ASTM, C-28, has developed dozens of consensus test standards and practices to measure various properties of a ceramic monolith, composite, or coating. The standards give the what, how, how not, and why for measurement of many mechanical, physical, thermal, and performance properties. Using these standards will provide accurate, reliable, and complete data for rigorous comparisons with other test results from your test lab, or another. The C-28 Committee has involved academics, producers, and users of ceramics to write and continually update more than 45 standards since the committees inception in 1986. Included in this poster is a pictogram of the C-28 standards and information on how to obtain individual copies with full details or the complete collection of all of the standards in one volume.

Pain and movement dysfunction are invariant sensory and motor expressions of health disorders. They are also complex, inter-related problems and may be accompanied by fatigue and depressed mood. Optimum management is predicated on the appropriate selection, application and interpretation of assessment measures. Research on pain and physical function using physical performance tests has shown that regardless of whether pain and impairment is a consequence of musculo-skeletal injury or systemic disease such as cancers, pain-free individuals outperform those with pain in terms of movement speed and endurance ability across a variety of performance tests (e.g. walk and reach tests, and repeated sit-to-stand and trunk flexion tests). Slow movements are characterized by fractionated and extraneous movement patterns. They are also associated with a relatively high level of muscle activity (amplitude and duration) throughout the task compared to fast movements. Slow movements are also relatively inefficient in terms of physiological energy and time burden. For a similar level of effort, individuals with pain are able to perform significantly less work. Our research has shown that individuals with pain move slower across a range of self-selected movement speeds i.e. slow, preferred and fast speeds. It is also apparent that patients systematically over estimate expected pain during task performance at faster speeds. Preliminary work using speed targeted treatment shows promise in terms of improving physical performance and reducing the burden of illness and physical dysfunction.

Forests are generally assumed to be an atmospheric methane (CH4) sink (Le Mer and Roger, 2001). However, under Asian monsoon climate, forests are subject to wide spatiotemporal range in soil water status, where forest soils often became water-saturated condition heterogeneously. In such warm and humid conditions, forests may act as a CH4 source and/or sink with considerable spatiotemporal variations. Micrometeorological methods such as eddy covariance (EC) method continuously measure spatially-representative flux at a canopy scale without artificial disturbance. In this study, we measured CH4 fluxes over a temperate forest during four-year period using a CH4 analyzer based on tunable diode laser spectroscopy detection with a relaxed eddy accumulation (REA) method (Hamotani et al., 1996, 2001). We revealed the amplitude and seasonal variations of canopy-scale CH4 fluxes. The REA method is the attractive alternative to the EC method to measure trace-gas flux because it allows the use of analyzers with an optimal integration time. We also conducted continuous chamber measurements on forest floor to reveal spatial variations in soil CH4 fluxes and its controlling processes. The observations were made in an evergreen coniferous forest in central Japan. The site has a warm temperate monsoon climate with wet summer. Some wetlands were located in riparian zones along streams within the flux footprint area. For the REA method, the sonic anemometer (SAT-550, Kaijo) was mounted on top of the 29-m-tall tower and air was sampled from just below the sonic anemometer to reservoirs according to the direction of vertical wind velocity (w). After accumulating air for 30 minutes, the air in the reservoirs was pulled into a CO2/H2O gas analyzer (LI-840, Li-Cor) and a CH4 analyzer (FMA-200, Los Gatos Research). Before entering the analyzers, the sampled air was dried using a gas dryer (PD-50 T-48; Perma Pure Inc.). The REA flux is obtained from the difference in the mean concentrations

The intensity of global competition and ever-increasing economic uncertainties has led organizations to search for more efficient and effective ways to manage their business operations. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) has been widely used as a conceptually simple yet powerful tool for evaluating organizational productivity and performance. Fuzzy DEA (FDEA) is a promising extension of the conventional DEA proposed for dealing with imprecise and ambiguous data in performancemeasurement problems. This book is the first volume in the literature to present the state-of-the-art developments and applications of FDEA. It is designed for students, educators, researchers, consultants and practicing managers in business, industry, and government with a basic understanding of the DEA and fuzzy logic concepts.

Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) relaxation dispersion nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has emerged as a powerful method for quantifying chemical shifts of excited protein states. For many applications of the technique that involve the measurement of relaxation rates of carbon magnetization it is necessary to prepare samples with isolated {sup 13}C spins so that experiments do not suffer from magnetization transfer between coupled carbon spins that would otherwise occur during the CPMG pulse train. In the case of {sup 13}CO experiments however the large separation between {sup 13}CO and {sup 13}C{sup {alpha}} chemical shifts offers hope that robust {sup 13}CO dispersion profiles can be recorded on uniformly {sup 13}C labeled samples, leading to the extraction of accurate {sup 13}CO chemical shifts of the invisible, excited state. Here we compare such chemical shifts recorded on samples that are selectively labeled, prepared using [1-{sup 13}C]-pyruvate and NaH{sup 13}CO{sub 3,} or uniformly labeled, generated from {sup 13}C-glucose. Very similar {sup 13}CO chemical shifts are obtained from analysis of CPMG experiments recorded on both samples, and comparison with chemical shifts measured using a second approach establishes that the shifts measured from relaxation dispersion are very accurate.

Research highlights: {yields} The dynamic parameters for the backbone dynamics in Cyt c were determined. {yields} The backbone mobility of Cyt c is highly restricted due to the covalently bound heme. {yields} The backbone mobility of Cyt c is more restricted upon the oxidation of the heme. {yields} The redox-dependent dynamics are shown in the backbone of Cyt c. {yields} The backbone dynamics of Cyt c would regulate the electron transfer from Cyt c. -- Abstract: Redox-controlled backbone dynamics in cytochrome c (Cyt c) were revealed by 2D {sup 15}N NMR relaxation experiments. {sup 15}N T{sub 1} and T{sub 2} values and {sup 1}H-{sup 15}N NOEs of uniformly {sup 15}N-labeled reduced and oxidized Cyt c were measured, and the generalized order parameters (S{sup 2}), the effective correlation time for internal motion ({tau}{sub e}), the {sup 15}N exchange broadening contributions (R{sub ex}) for each residue, and the overall correlation time ({tau}{sub m}) were estimated by model-free dynamics formalism. These dynamic parameters clearly showed that the backbone dynamics of Cyt c are highly restricted due to the covalently bound heme that functions as the stable hydrophobic core. Upon oxidation of the heme iron in Cyt c, the average S{sup 2} value was increased from 0.88 {+-} 0.01 to 0.92 {+-} 0.01, demonstrating that the mobility of the backbone is further restricted in the oxidized form. Such increases in the S{sup 2} values were more prominent in the loop regions, including amino acid residues near the thioether bonds to the heme moiety and positively charged region around Lys87. Both of the regions are supposed to form the interaction site for cytochrome c oxidase (CcO) and the electron pathway from Cyt c to CcO. The redox-dependent mobility of the backbone in the interaction site for the electron transfer to CcO suggests an electron transfer mechanism regulated by the backbone dynamics in the Cyt c-CcO system.

The aims of this paper are (1) to identify the characteristics of maintenance service providers that directly impact maintenance service quality, using 18 independent covariables; (2) to quantify the change in risk these covariables present to service quality, measured in terms of equipment turnaround time (TAT). A survey was applied to every maintenance service provider (n = 19) for characterization purposes. The equipment inventory was characterized, and the TAT variable recorded and monitored for every work order of each service provider (N = 1,025). Finally, the research team conducted a statistical analysis to accomplish the research objectives. The results of this study offer strong empirical evidence that the most influential variables affecting the quality of maintenance service performance are the following: type of maintenance, availability of spare parts in the country, user training, technological complexity of the equipment, distance between the company and the hospital, and the number of maintenance visits performed by the company. The strength of the results obtained by the Cox model built are supported by the measure of the Rp,e(2) = 0.57 with a value of Rp,e= 0.75. Thus, the model explained 57% of the variation in equipment TAT, with moderate high positive correlation between the dependent variable (TAT) and independent variables.

Full Text Available The information about a companyâ€™s performance is necessary in order to evaluate the potential modifications of the economic resources that the entity will be able to control in the future, to anticipate the ability to generate treasury fluxes with the available resources, and to establish the efficiency with which it can employ and make use of new resources. In current practice, the information regarding financial performance are mainly given by â€œthe profit and loss accountâ€, respectively â€œthe budgetary execution accountâ€, but things are not so simple as to reduce them to the synthetic data in a certain periodic report form since it would be a pity to ignore the real - time information given by the account itself. In our paper we have tried to resume the most important non-financial indicators, through which the performance of a company is measured.

Fluorescence lifetime measurements of KrN clusters (N¯=2-2000) have been carried out using intense 10 eV laser excitation near 3P2 metastable atomic energy level. Two principal groups of electronically excited dimers Kr2* have been found in desorption: dimers, loosely bound near the (3P2+1S0) dissociation limit, ejected from cooled clusters and dimers undergoing vibrational relaxation from hot clusters. The desorption is principally terminated when N¯⩾50 at./cluster. The relaxation kinetics seems to converge to the properties of a solid state for 102⩽N¯⩽103 at./cluster. A variation of the Kr2*(1u/0u-) radiative lifetime, from 264 ns (in gas phase) to 440 ns (N¯=102), has been found. An equilibrium cluster temperature of 57 K has been calculated from this τ(N) dependence.

This report describes a methodical approach to performancemeasurement experiments. This approach gives a blueprint for the whole trajectory from the notion of performancemeasures and how to define them via planning, instrumentation and execution of the experiments to interpretation of the results. The first stage of the approach, Measurement Initialisation, has been worked out completely. It is shown that a well-defined system description allows a procedural approach to defining performance...

The possibility for performing self-diffusion measurements by Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) experiments using the inherent magnetic field inhomogeneities as a gradient field were tested for six sample molecules, using a Maran Ultra NMR instrument with a 0.5 T permanent magnet. The method tested assumed that the magnetic field inhomogeneities could be approximated by a linear gradient, and the estimated parameter representing the magnetic field inhomogeneities in this model have been estima...

A relaxed eddy accumulation (REA) system, based on the design by Beverland et al. (Journal of Geophysics Research 101 (D17) 22, 807-22, 815), for the measurement of biogenic VOC species was evaluated by intercomparison with an eddy correlation CO2 flux system over a mature deciduous beech canopy...... obtained with correlation coefficients for the REA system ranging from 0.71 to 0.82, lending further confidence in the use of this technique, Daily averaged biogenic emissions from the wheat and barley canopies were significantly larger than expected, likely a result of harvesting. Fluxes measured over...

This report describes a methodical approach to performancemeasurement experiments. This approach gives a blueprint for the whole trajectory from the notion of performancemeasures and how to define them via planning, instrumentation and execution of the experiments to interpretation of the results.

This report describes a methodical approach to performancemeasurement experiments. This approach gives a blueprint for the whole trajectory from the notion of performancemeasures and how to define them via planning, instrumentation and execution of the experiments to interpretation of the results.

By using a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID), the temporal relaxation of the magnetization was determined for ring-shaped Tl 2Ba 2CaCu 2O 8 thin films at various temperatures between 10 K and 80 K in magnetic fields ranging from 2 mT to 0.3 T. Based on these data, a detailed analysis has been performed related to the following methods or models: (1) Fitting the data to the thermally activated flux motion and collective pinning model; (2) Applying the Generalized Inversion Scheme to extract the temperature dependence of the unrelaxed critical current density jc( T) and pinning potential Uc( T); (3) Testing a modified Maley's method to obtain the current dependent activation energy for flux motion; (4) 2D vortex glass scaling. It is found that, for low fields (2 mT, 10 mT, 40 mT) the experimental data can be described by an elastic flux motion, most probably due to 3D single vortex creep. At higher fields (0.1 T, 0.2 T, 0.3 T), the observed behavior can be interpreted in terms of plastic flux motion which is probably governed by dislocation mediated flux creep. These high field data can also be consistently described by the 2D vortex glass scaling with scaling parameters ν2D, T0 and p being consistent with those derived from corresponding transport measurement. Also, results are presented demonstrating the importance of optimizing the scan length of the sample in a moving sample SQUID magnetometer to avoid artifacts.

Motivated by natural inflation, we propose a relaxation mechanism consistent with inflationary cosmology that explains the hierarchy between the electroweak scale and Planck scale. This scenario is based on a selection mechanism that identifies the low-scale dynamics as the one that is screened from UV physics. The scenario also predicts the near-criticality and metastability of the Standard Model (SM) vacuum state, explaining the Higgs boson mass observed at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Once Majorana right-handed neutrinos are introduced to provide a viable reheating channel, our framework yields a corresponding mass scale that allows for the seesaw mechanism as well as for standard thermal leptogenesis. We argue that considering singlet scalar dark matter extensions of the proposed scenario could solve the vacuum stability problem and discuss how the cosmological constant problem is possibly addressed.

Temperature dependent relaxation dynamics, particle motion characteristics, and heterogeneity aspects of deep eutectic solvents (DESs) made of acetamide (CH{sub 3}CONH{sub 2}) and urea (NH{sub 2}CONH{sub 2}) have been investigated by employing time-resolved fluorescence measurements and all-atom molecular dynamics simulations. Three different compositions (f) for the mixture [fCH{sub 3}CONH{sub 2} + (1 − f)NH{sub 2}CONH{sub 2}] have been studied in a temperature range of 328-353 K which is ∼120-145 K above the measured glass transition temperatures (∼207 K) of these DESs but much lower than the individual melting temperature of either of the constituents. Steady state fluorescence emission measurements using probe solutes with sharply different lifetimes do not indicate any dependence on excitation wavelength in these metastable molten systems. Time-resolved fluorescence anisotropy measurements reveal near-hydrodynamic coupling between medium viscosity and rotation of a dissolved dipolar solute. Stokes shift dynamics have been found to be too fast to be detected by the time-resolution (∼70 ps) employed, suggesting extremely rapid medium polarization relaxation. All-atom simulations reveal Gaussian distribution for particle displacements and van Hove correlations, and significant overlap between non-Gaussian (α{sub 2}) and new non-Gaussian (γ) heterogeneity parameters. In addition, no stretched exponential relaxations have been detected in the simulated wavenumber dependent acetamide dynamic structure factors. All these results are in sharp contrast to earlier observations for ionic deep eutectics with acetamide [Guchhait et al., J. Chem. Phys. 140, 104514 (2014)] and suggest a fundamental difference in interaction and dynamics between ionic and non-ionic deep eutectic solvent systems.

Time-resolved mid-IR transient absorption spectroscopy is employed to explore the mechanism of improving the performance of dye-sensitized TiO2 solar cell (DSSC) when a certain amount of H2O is added into the electrolyte. The relaxation kinetics of dye-sensitized TiO2 nanocrystalline film and the corresponding DSSC performance are investigated under different conditions. It is found that the interfacial charge recombination is retarded and electron injection efficiency is increased in the water vapour and in the electrolyte when D2O is added. The values of open-circuit photovoltage Voc and the short-circuit photocurrent Jsc of the cells are linearly correlated to the product of the two decay time constants. We also observed that Voc well correlates with electron injection efficiency. It provides a preliminary microscopic account for the function of the added water in improving the performance of DSSCs.

Time-resolved mid-IR transient absorption spectroscopy is employed to explore the mechanism of improving the performance of dye-sensitized TiOi solar cell (DSSC) when a certain amount of HiO is added into the electrolyte. The relaxation kinetics of dye-sensitized TiO2 nanocrystalline film and the corresponding DSSC performance are investigated under different conditions. It is found that the interfacial charge recombination is retarded and electron injection efficiency is increased in the water vapour and in the electrolyte when D2O is added. The values of open-circuit photovoltage Voc and the short-circuit photocurrent Jsc of the cells are linearly correlated to the product of the two decay time constants. We also observed that Voc well correlates with electron injection efficiency. It provides a preliminary microscopic account for the function of the added water in improving the performance of DSSCs.

Existing two-frequency reconstructive methods can only capture primary (single) molecular relaxation processes in excitable gases. In this paper, we present a reconstructive method based on the novel decomposition of frequency-dependent acoustic relaxation spectra to capture the entire molecular multimode relaxation process. This decomposition of acoustic relaxation spectra is developed from the frequency-dependent effective specific heat, indicating that a multi-relaxation process is the sum of the interior single-relaxation processes. Based on this decomposition, we can reconstruct the entire multi-relaxation process by capturing the relaxation times and relaxation strengths of N interior single-relaxation processes, using the measurements of acoustic absorption and sound speed at 2N frequencies. Experimental data for the gas mixtures CO2-N2 and CO2-O2 validate our decomposition and reconstruction approach.

Reducing the data collection time without affecting the signal intensity and spectral resolution is one of the major challenges for the widespread application of multidimensional nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, especially in experiments conducted on complex heterogeneous biological systems such as bone. In most of these experiments, the NMR data collection time is ultimately governed by the proton spin-lattice relaxation times (T1). For over two decades, gadolinium(III)-DTPA (Gd-DTPA, DTPA = Diethylene triamine pentaacetic acid) has been one of the most widely used contrast-enhancement agents in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). In this study, we demonstrate that Gd-DTPA can also be effectively used to enhance the longitudinal relaxation rates of protons in solid-state NMR experiments conducted on bone without significant line-broadening and chemical-shift-perturbation side effects. Using bovine cortical bone samples incubated in different concentrations of Gd-DTPA complex, the 1H T1 values were calculated from data collected by 1H spin-inversion recovery method detected in natural-abundance 13C cross-polarization magic angle spinning (CPMAS) NMR experiments. Our results reveal that the 1H T1 values can be successfully reduced by a factor of 3.5 using as low as 10 mM Gd-DTPA without reducing the spectral resolution and thus enabling faster data acquisition of the 13C CPMAS spectra. These results obtained from 13C-detected CPMAS experiments were further confirmed using 1H-detected ultrafast MAS experiments on Gd-DTPA doped bone samples. This approach considerably improves the signal-to-noise ratio per unit time of NMR experiments applied to bone samples by reducing the experimental time required to acquire the same number of scans.

BACKGROUND: Theoretically, individual work performance (IWP) can be divided into four dimensions: task performance, contextual performance, adaptive performance, and counterproductive work behavior. However, there is no consensus on the indicators used to measure these dimensions. OBJECTIVE: This st

In the present work, we formulate and solve an inverse problem to recover the surface relaxivity as a function of pore size. The input data for our technique are the T2 distribution measurement and the micro-tomographic image of the rock sample under investigation. We simulate the NMR relaxation signal for a given surface relaxivity function using the random walk method and rank different surface relaxivity functions according to the correlation of the resulting simulated T2 distributions with the measured T2 distribution. The optimization is performed using genetic algorithms and determines the surface relaxivity function whose corresponding simulated T2 distribution best matches the measured T2 distribution. In the proposed methodology, pore size is associated with a number of collisions in the random walk simulations. We illustrate the application of the proposed method by performing inversions from synthetic and laboratory input data and compare the obtained results with those obtained using the uniform relaxivity assumption.

The objectives of this task were to describe and evaluate selected existing sources of information on occupational safety and health with emphasis on hazard and exposure assessment, abatement, training, reporting, and control identifying for exposure and outcome in preparation for developing DOE performance benchmarks. Existing resources and methodologies were assessed for their potential use as practical performance benchmarks. Strengths and limitations of current data resources were identified. Guidelines were outlined for developing new or improved performance factors, which then could become the basis for selecting performance benchmarks. Data bases for non-DOE comparison populations were identified so that DOE performance could be assessed relative to non-DOE occupational and industrial groups. Systems approaches were described which can be used to link hazards and exposure, event occurrence, and adverse outcome factors, as needed to generate valid, reliable, and predictive performance benchmarks. Data bases were identified which contain information relevant to one or more performance assessment categories . A list of 72 potential performance benchmarks was prepared to illustrate the kinds of information that can be produced through a benchmark development program. Current information resources which may be used to develop potential performance benchmarks are limited. There is need to develop an occupational safety and health information and data system in DOE, which is capable of incorporating demonstrated and documented performance benchmarks prior to, or concurrent with the development of hardware and software. A key to the success of this systems approach is rigorous development and demonstration of performance benchmark equivalents to users of such data before system hardware and software commitments are institutionalized.

Driven plasma pinch configurations are characterized by the gradual accumulation and episodic release of free energy in discrete relaxation events. The hallmark of this relaxation in a reversed-field pinch (RFP) plasma is flattening of the parallel current density profile effected by a fluctuation-induced dynamo emf in Ohm's law. Nonlinear two-fluid modeling of macroscopic RFP dynamics has shown appreciable coupling of magnetic relaxation and the evolution of plasma flow. Accurate modeling of RFP dynamics requires the Hall effect in Ohm's law as well as first order ion finite Larmor radius (FLR) effects, represented by the Braginskii ion gyroviscous stress tensor. New results find that the Hall dynamo effect from / ne can counter the MHD effect from - in some of the relaxation events. The MHD effect dominates these events and relaxes the current profile toward the Taylor state, but the opposition of the two dynamos generates plasma flow in the direction of equilibrium current density, consistent with experimental measurements. Detailed experimental measurements of the MHD and Hall emf terms are compared to these extended MHD predictions. Tracking the evolution of magnetic energy, helicity, and hybrid helicity during relaxation identifies the most important contributions in single-fluid and two-fluid models. Magnetic helicity is well conserved relative to the magnetic energy during relaxation. The hybrid helicity is dominated by magnetic helicity in realistic low-beta pinch conditions and is also well conserved. Differences of less than 1 % between magnetic helicity and hybrid helicity are observed with two-fluid modeling and result from cross helicity evolution through ion FLR effects, which have not been included in contemporary relaxation theories. The kinetic energy driven by relaxation in the computations is dominated by velocity components perpendicular to the magnetic field, an effect that had not been predicted. Work performed at University of Wisconsin

To test the hypothesis that shear stress relaxation functions of dental ceramics can be determined from creep functions measured in a beam-bending viscometer. Stress relaxation behavior was determined from creep data for the following materials: (1) a veneering ceramic-IPS Empress2 body ceramic (E2V); (2) an experimental veneering ceramic (EXV); (3) a low expansion body porcelain-Vita VMK 68 feldspathic body porcelain (VB); (4) a high expansion body porcelain-Will Ceram feldspathic body porcelain (WCB); (5) a medium expansion opaque porcelain-Vita feldspathic opaque porcelain (VO); and (6) a high expansion opaque porcelain-Will Ceram feldspathic opaque porcelain (WCO). Laplace transform techniques were used to relate shear stress relaxation functions to creep functions for an eight-parameter, discrete viscoelastic model. Nonlinear regression analysis was performed to fit a four-term exponential relaxation function for each material at each temperature. The relaxation functions were utilized in the ANSYS finite element program to simulate creep behavior in three-point bending for each material at each temperature. Shear stress relaxation times at 575 degrees C ranged from 0.03 s for EXV to 195 s for WCO. Knowledge of the shear relaxation functions for dental ceramics at high temperatures is required input for the viscoelastic element in the ANSYS finite element program, which can used to determine transient and residual stresses in dental prostheses during fabrication.

Student performance in general organic chemistry courses is determined by a wide range of factors including cognitive ability, motivation and cultural capital. Previous work on cognitive factors has tended to focus on specific areas rather than exploring performance across all problem types and cognitive skills. In this study, we have categorized…

Student performance in general organic chemistry courses is determined by a wide range of factors including cognitive ability, motivation and cultural capital. Previous work on cognitive factors has tended to focus on specific areas rather than exploring performance across all problem types and cognitive skills. In this study, we have categorized…

Full Text Available Experimental studies suggest that prolonged trunk flexion reduces passive support of the spine. To understand alterations of the synergy between active and passive tissues following such loadings, several studies have assessed the time-dependent behavior of passive tissues including those within spinal motion segments and muscles. Yet, there remain limitations regarding load-relaxation of the lumbar spine in response to flexion exposures and the influence of different flexion angles. Ten healthy participants were exposed for 16 min to each of five magnitudes of lumbar flexion specified relative to individual flexion-relaxation angles (i.e., 30, 40, 60, 80, and 100%, during which lumbar flexion angle and trunk moment were recorded. Outcome measures were initial trunk moment, moment drop, parameters of four viscoelastic models (i.e., Standard Linear Solid model, the Prony Series, Schapery's Theory, and the Modified Superposition Method, and changes in neutral zone and viscoelastic state following exposure. There were significant effects of flexion angle on initial moment, moment drop, changes in normalized neutral zone, and some parameters of the Standard Linear Solid model. Initial moment, moment drop, and changes in normalized neutral zone increased exponentially with flexion angle. Kelvin-solid models produced better predictions of temporal behaviors. Observed responses to trunk flexion suggest nonlinearity in viscoelastic properties, and which likely reflected viscoelastic behaviors of spinal (lumbar motion segments. Flexion-induced changes in viscous properties and neutral zone imply an increase in internal loads and perhaps increased risk of low back disorders. Kelvin-solid models, especially the Prony Series model appeared to be more effective at modeling load-relaxation of the trunk.

Logistics is a backbone for the global supply chains. In Malaysia, logistics are now recognized as strategic industry that positively contribute to gross domestic product (GDP) and performance of logistics is foremost significant. Whereas most of the logistics performance has focused on investigating operational and trade facilitation contexts. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine the issues and reviews by practitioners and found 7 key components that translated it into operations pe...

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY The purpose of this study is to develop a marketing dashboard for a Finnish company that operates in the financial industry. The identification of suitable metrics for assessing marketing performance is considered central. This study proposes a new construct (a dashboard) that aims to providing management relevant information on marketing performance from decision-making perspective. METHODOLOGY AND DATA The methodology is a constructive case study. In the...

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services — Section 4558 (b) of the Balanced Budget Act (BBA) requires CMS to develop and implement by January 1, 2000, a method to measure and report the quality of renal...

U.S. Department of Health & Human Services — Section 4558 (b) of the Balanced Budget Act (BBA) requires CMS to develop and implement by January 1, 2000, a method to measure and report the quality of renal...

The purpose of this study is to examine the usefulness of an MEMS sensor for measuring vibration of agricultural vehicle by obtaining serial data of vibration acceleration of agricultural vehicle using an MEMS sensor and translational accelerometer and thereby calculating RMS and PSD for comparison and analysis as a step before construction of measuring system which can identify operating conditions of agricultural packaging machinery at all times. Although there are differences between verti...

We present a study to probe the formation of localized aromatic sextets and their effects on the charge transport properties in polymers with acene cores. Bithiophene-acene copolymers containing benzene, naphthalene, or anthracene as acene cores were synthesized using Yamamoto polymerization. Drop-casted polymer films were chemically doped and analyzed using high frequency saturation transfer EPR (HF ST-EPR), a method which has proven useful in the study of conducting polymers. The spin-spin and spin-lattice relaxation times were determined for these polymers at low temperatures (4 to 20 K) and used to obtain inter- and intrachain spin diffusion rates and conductivities. Similar interchain spin diffusion rates were seen across all polymer systems; however, anthracene containing polymer poly(hexylTTATT) was found to have the largest intrachain spin diffusion rate. The poly(hexylTTATT) intrachain spin diffusion rate may be artificially high if the anthracene ring restricts the diffusion of spin to the hexylated quaterthiophene segment in poly(hexylTTATT) whereas the spins diffuse through the acene cores in the benzene and naphthalene derivatives. Alternatively, as both the spin diffusion rates and conductivities vary unpredictably with temperature, it is possible that the π-electron localization previously seen in the anthracene core could be relieved at lower temperatures.

It is demonstrated by in situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) studies that the growth of cubic GaN on MgO occurs in a layer-by-layer mode under Ga-rich conditions, growth rates 0.25-0.30 ML/s and 700 °C substrate temperature. From streak-spacing analysis of the observed RHEED patterns, it is possible to infer that the GaN layer grows pseudomorphically on MgO up to 3 monolayers (ML). After that, a relaxation process begins and the layer-by-layer or 2-dimensional growth changes to a columnar or 3-dimensional growth, as evidenced by the transformation of the RHEED patterns, which change from streaky to spotty. The experimental critical thickness ( h c) value of 3 ML is close to the prediction of the Frank-van der Merwe classical model of 2.5 ML. Other models predict h c values 3-6 times the experimental value experimentally observed.

(-)-Bornyl acetate is the main volatile constituent in numerous conifer oils and has a camphoraceous, pine-needle-like odor. It is frequently used as the conifer needle composition in soap, bath products, room sprays, and pharmaceutical products. However, the psychophysiological effects of (-)-bornyl acetate remained unclear. We investigated the effects of breathing air mixed with (-)-bornyl acetate at different doses (low-dose and high-dose conditions) on the individuals during and after VDT (visual display terminal) work using a visual discrimination task. The amounts of (-)-bornyl acetate through our odorant delivery system for 40 min were 279.4 µg in the low-dose and 716.3 µg in the high-dose (-)-bornyl acetate condition. (-)-Bornyl acetate induced changes of autonomic nervous system for relaxation and reduced arousal level after VDT work without any influences of task performance in low-dose condition, but not in high-dose condition.

The frequency of ocular microtremor (OMT) is related to the functional status of the brain stem, and thus OMT may be useful in the diagnosis and management of brain stem disorders. The paper discusses the design of an OMT measurement system and reports quantitative specifications for three portable systems. All systems use a piezo-electric element as the transducer, which measures the displacement of the sclera during eye rotations. The systems differ in the manner in which the signal is recorded. All systems can detect eye movements corresponding to displacements of the sclera ranging from 12 to over 3000 nm. The frequency responses of all systems are flat (< 2 dB deviation from peak response) between 20 and 150 Hz. The phase response shows deviations (< pi) at the extremes of this range, but qualitative comparison of input and measured signals demonstrates that phase distortion is not excessive. Thus all systems are acceptable for clinical studies involving OMT.

Full Text Available Despite theoretical arguments that partnerships are the most efficient ownership form for professional service firms (PSFs, PSFs are increasingly moving to other ownership structures, such as publicly listed companies (PLCs. Research on the comparative performance of PSF, PLCs and partnerships is sparse with conflicting results suggesting that some segments of PSFs are moving to a less efficient form. This study explores the performance of two Australian accounting PLCs compared to a sample of similar sized mid tier accounting firms. The accounting PLCs achieved substantially higher revenue growth rates but lower productivity than the partnership sample. Measurement issues were identified in the use of closing resource numbers and different treatment of reporting merger and acquisition revenues which may partially explain the underperformance of publicly owned PSFs in prior studies. The need for research at a more detailed level exploring the market and service focus, organisational structures, resources utilised and resource costs across different PSF ownership forms is suggested.

Quantitative meta-analyses of randomized clinical trials investigating the specific therapeutic efficacy of homeopathic remedies yielded statistically significant differences compared to placebo. Since the remedies used contained mostly only very low concentrations of pharmacologically active compounds, these effects cannot be accounted for within the framework of current pharmacology. Theories to explain clinical effects of homeopathic remedies are partially based upon changes in diluent structure. To investigate the latter, we measured for the first time high-field (600/500 MHz) 1H T1 and T2 nuclear magnetic resonance relaxation times of H2O in homeopathic preparations with concurrent contamination control by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Homeopathic preparations of quartz (10 c-30 c, n = 21, corresponding to iterative dilutions of 100-10-100-30), sulfur (13 x-30 x, n = 18, 10-13-10-30), and copper sulfate (11 c-30 c, n = 20, 100-11-100-30) were compared to n = 10 independent controls each (analogously agitated dilution medium) in randomized and blinded experiments. In none of the samples, the concentration of any element analyzed by ICP-MS exceeded 10 ppb. In the first measurement series (600 MHz), there was a significant increase in T1 for all samples as a function of time, and there were no significant differences between homeopathic potencies and controls. In the second measurement series (500 MHz) 1 year after preparation, we observed statistically significant increased T1 relaxation times for homeopathic sulfur preparations compared to controls. Fifteen out of 18 correlations between sample triplicates were higher for controls than for homeopathic preparations. No conclusive explanation for these phenomena can be given at present. Possible hypotheses involve differential leaching from the measurement vessel walls or a change in water molecule dynamics, i.e., in rotational correlation time and/or diffusion. Homeopathic preparations

We investigated the usefulness of the spin-spin relaxation time (T2) of protein protons as a probe for evaluating the molecular flexibility of freeze-dried protein formulations. It is proposed that the microscopic softening temperature determined from changes in the T2 of protein protons (Ts(T2)) is an important characteristic of freeze-dried protein formulations, the glass transition temperature (Tg) of which is generally difficult to determine by differential scanning calorimetry. We determined the molecular flexibility of lyophilized bovine serum albumin (BSA) and bovine gamma-globulin (BGG) by measuring the T2 of protein and water protons as well as the spin-lattice relaxation time (T1) of the latter as a function of temperature. The flexibility of freeze-dried BSA and BGG cakes markedly varied at temperatures above and below the Ts(T2), affecting the stability of the proteins. The denaturation and subsequent aggregation of lyophilized BSA and BGG cakes with a relatively high water content was enhanced in the softened state at temperatures above the Ts(T2). Lyophilized cakes with an extremely low water content were significantly denatured, even in the unsoftened state at temperatures below the Ts(T2), probably due to the thermodynamically unstable structures of protein molecules generated by a loss of structural water.

Dielectric relaxation studies of binary ($jk$) polar mixtures of tetrahydrofuran with $N$-methyl acetamide, $N,N$-dimethyl acetamide, $N$-methyl formamide and $N,N$-dimethyl formamide dissolved in benzene(i) for different weight fractions ($w_{jk}$’s) of the polar solutes and mole fractions ($x_{j}$ ’s) of tetrahydrofuran at 25◦C are attempted by measuring the conductivity of the solution under 9.90 GHz electric field using Debye theory. The estimated relaxation time ($\\tau_{jk}$’s) and dipole moment ($\\mu_{jk}$’s) agree well with the reported values signifying the validity of the proposed methods. Structural and associational aspects are predicted from the plot of $\\tau_{jk}$ and $\\mu_{jk}$ against $x_{j}$ of tetrahydrofuran to arrive at solute–solute (dimer) molecular association upto $x_{j} = 0.3$ of tetrahydrofuran and thereafter solute–solvent (monomer) molecular association upto $x_{j} = 1.0$ for all systems except tetrahydrofuran + $N,N$-dimethyl acetamide.

Abstract. A single measure that can be used to assess the performance of batsmen ... a formula for batting performance and a classification table for Test players. Keywords: Batting performance, Consistency, Cricket, Present form of a batsman ...

... the State, as of the end of the fiscal year) who have been born out-of-wedlock and for whom paternity... the end of the preceding fiscal year who were born out-of-wedlock. The equation to compute the measure... Percentage means the ratio that the total number of minor children who have been born out-of-wedlock and for...

Till today we dreamt of imperceptible delay in a network. The computer science research grows today faster than ever offering more and more services (computational representational, graphical, intelligent implication etc) to its user. But the problem lies in "greater the volume of services greater the problem of delay". So tracing delay, or performance analysis focusing on time required for computation, in a existing or newly configured network is necessary to conclude the improvement. In this paper, we have done the job of delay analysis in a multi-server system,. For this proposed work we have used continuous -parameter Markov chains (Non -Birth -Death Process),for developing the required models, and for developing the simulator we have used queuing networking, different scheduling algorithms at the servers queue and process scheduling . The work can be further extended to test the performance of wireless domain.

Successful bank operation requires managers to weigh complex trade-offs between growth, return, and risk. In recent years banks increasingly have adopted innovative performance metrics based on the concept of economic profit, rather than accounting earnings to assist managers in making such difficult and complex decisions. Banks hope in this way to elicit better decision-making by managers and also too align managerial behavior more closely with the interests of shareholders. This article ana...

The Danish Ministry of Health has published the third annual report on hospital productivity. This experience has contributed to policy goals becoming more detailed and ambitious. New policy goals are: to include hospital productivity measures at less aggregated levels, to include labour producti......The Danish Ministry of Health has published the third annual report on hospital productivity. This experience has contributed to policy goals becoming more detailed and ambitious. New policy goals are: to include hospital productivity measures at less aggregated levels, to include labour...... productivity and hospital psychiatric care, to provide web-based solutions that facilitate access to productivity data, and to develop new classifications of hospital levels related to structural reforms....

High quality anti-relaxation surface coatings for atomic vapor cells are essential for the preservation of atomic spin coherence and the enhancement of measurement sensitivity. In this paper, we studied the effects of water concentration in octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) coating solution on the relaxation rate and its reproducibility of OTS coated Rubidium vapor cells. We found that appropriate water concentration can improve the anti-relaxationperformance of OTS coated cells.

Most of the companies have yearly performance appraisal process for their employees. This process involves rating of employees by their manager. And Companies rely purely on managerís state of thinking and perception. Humans have tendency to become biased, corrupt, give favor to some employees whom they like. This favor is due to some other reasons e.g. personal reason, social reason, political reason, flattering. All these reasons are not related to the work that the employee is doing for the organization.

Recent set of structure functions, branching ratios and the current understanding of detector performance lead to a new evaluation of the CP reach of CMS. Compared to previous analysis, expected numbers of fully reconstructed and {mu} tagged B events are smaller, but are partly recovered thanks to progress on low pT electron identification based upon the high-resolution and fine granular electromagnetic calorimeter. This allow to use electrons for tagging purpose as well s for J/{psi} {yields} e{sup +}e{sup -}reconstruction. (author). 13 refs.

Involving employees in the development of performancemeasures often results in better employee job performance. Yet not all prior studies find such a direct effect. This study explains these inconsistent findings. It focuses on the measurement properties of performancemeasures and using them for

Cloud computing today has now been growing as new technologies and new business models. In distributed technology perspective, cloud computing most like client-server services like web-based or web-service but it used virtual resources to execute. Currently, cloud computing relies on the use of an elastic virtual machine and the use of network for data exchange. We conduct an experimental setup to measure the quality of service received by cloud computing customers. Experimental setup done by creating a HTTP service that runs in the cloud computing infrastructure. We interest to know about the impact of increasing the number of users on the average quality received by users. The qualities received by user measured within two parameters consist of average response times and the number of requests time out. Experimental results of this study show that increasing the number of users has increased the average response time. Similarly, the number of request time out increasing with increasing number of users. It m...

The objective of this research project is to understand and to improve workers' recovery from work stress. Although recovery during lunch breaks is the most common within-workday break, it has received only minor research attention. Therefore, we will study whether lunch breaks including a relaxation session or exposure to nature have more favorable outcomes than usually spent lunch breaks concerning: a) recovery processes, b) health, c) well-being, d) job performance and e) creativity. We approach recovery by combining the theoretical frameworks of work and environmental psychology. We conduct an intervention study in a sample of 268 knowledge-workers who engage in different lunch break activities for 15-minutes per day, two weeks in a row. We randomly assign participants to three experimental conditions: 1) exposure to nature, 2) relaxation and 3) control group (lunch break spent as usual). Online questionnaires before and after the intervention assess long term changes regarding recovery processes and the major outcome variables. Before, during and after the intervention, SMS and paper-pencil questionnaires measure the same constructs four times a day with fewer items. We also measure blood pressure and collect saliva samples to map cortisol excretion across the intervention period. A timed experimental task (i.e., the Alternative Uses Task) is used to examine differences in creativity between the three groups after the intervention period. By combining the knowledge of work and environmental psychology about recovery and restorative experiences, by merging three recovery perspectives (settings, processes, and outcomes) and by using data triangulation, we produce valid results that broaden our view on mechanisms underlying recovery and enhance our understanding about their links to psychological, behavioural and physiological outcomes, resulting in a more comprehensive picture of work stress recovery in general. ClinicalTrials.gov Protocol Registration System

Background The objective of this research project is to understand and to improve workers’ recovery from work stress. Although recovery during lunch breaks is the most common within-workday break, it has received only minor research attention. Therefore, we will study whether lunch breaks including a relaxation session or exposure to nature have more favorable outcomes than usually spent lunch breaks concerning: a) recovery processes, b) health, c) well-being, d) job performance and e) creativity. We approach recovery by combining the theoretical frameworks of work and environmental psychology. Methods/Design We conduct an intervention study in a sample of 268 knowledge-workers who engage in different lunch break activities for 15-minutes per day, two weeks in a row. We randomly assign participants to three experimental conditions: 1) exposure to nature, 2) relaxation and 3) control group (lunch break spent as usual). Online questionnaires before and after the intervention assess long term changes regarding recovery processes and the major outcome variables. Before, during and after the intervention, SMS and paper-pencil questionnaires measure the same constructs four times a day with fewer items. We also measure blood pressure and collect saliva samples to map cortisol excretion across the intervention period. A timed experimental task (i.e., the Alternative Uses Task) is used to examine differences in creativity between the three groups after the intervention period. Discussion By combining the knowledge of work and environmental psychology about recovery and restorative experiences, by merging three recovery perspectives (settings, processes, and outcomes) and by using data triangulation, we produce valid results that broaden our view on mechanisms underlying recovery and enhance our understanding about their links to psychological, behavioural and physiological outcomes, resulting in a more comprehensive picture of work stress recovery in general. Trial

Many chemical and biological processes rely on the movement of monovalent cations and an understanding of such processes can therefore only be achieved by characterising the dynamics of the involved ions. It has recently been shown that 15N-ammonium can be used as a proxy for potassium to probe potassium binding in bio-molecules such as DNA quadruplexes and enzymes. Moreover, equations have been derived to describe the time-evolution of 15N-based spin density operator elements of 15NH4+ spin systems. Herein NMR pulse sequences are derived to select specific spin density matrix elements of the 15NH4+ spin system and to measure their longitudinal relaxation in order to characterise the rotational correlation time of the 15NH4+ ion as well as report on chemical exchange events of the 15NH4+ ion. Applications to 15NH4+ in acidic aqueous solutions are used to cross-validate the developed pulse sequence while measurements of spin-relaxation rates of 15NH4+ bound to a 41 kDa domain of the bacterial Hsp70 homologue DnaK are presented to show the general applicability of the derived pulse sequence. The rotational correlation time obtained for 15N-ammonium bound to DnaK is similar to the correlation time that describes the rotation about the threefold axis of a methyl group. The methodology presented here provides, together with the previous theoretical framework, an important step towards characterising the motional properties of cations in macromolecular systems.

Full Text Available This study compared acute (15 min yoga posture and guided meditation practice, performed seated in a typical office workspace, on physiological and psychological markers of stress. Twenty participants (39.6±9.5 yr completed three conditions: yoga, meditation, and control (i.e., usual work separated by ≥24 hrs. Yoga and meditation significantly reduced perceived stress versus control, and this effect was maintained postintervention. Yoga increased heart rate while meditation reduced heart rate versus control (<0.05. Respiration rate was reduced during yoga and meditation versus control (<0.05. Domains of heart rate variability (e.g., SDNN and Total Power were significantly reduced during control versus yoga and meditation. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure were reduced secondary to meditation versus control only (<0.05. Physiological adaptations generally regressed toward baseline postintervention. In conclusion, yoga postures or meditation performed in the office can acutely improve several physiological and psychological markers of stress. These effects may be at least partially mediated by reduced respiration rate.

Full Text Available The goal of this research is to propose a procedure of innovativeness measurement, taking Summary Innovation Index methodology as a starting point. In contemporary world, innovative activity is perceived as a source of competitiveness and economic growth. New products, utility models, trademarks and creative projects are an important element of present socio-economic reality. In particular, authors focus on selection and application of multivariable statistical analysis to distinguish factors influencing innovativeness of EU economies to the highest degree. The result of quantitative analyses is linear ordering of EU countries by the level of their innovativeness based on the reduced set of diagnostic variables. The rating was compared with the outcome presented in Innovation Union Scoreboard (IUS with Summary Innovation Index (SII. Conducted analysis proves a convergence between authors’ results and existing ratings of innovativeness. Nevertheless, the main conclusion is that the methodology of innovativeness assessment remains an open issue and requires further research. Especially, it should first and foremost concentrate on deeper verification of a small set of variables that have the strongest impact on innovativeness. It is both, in economic and social interest, to get a clear picture of innovativeness driving forces.

a new concept (Stewart, 1985; Stewart, Dohme, & Nullmeyer, 1999). For the past two decades, performancemeasures have been within the capabilities...that flight training grades alone may not be a valid predictor of future aviator performance in the unit. For instance, Bales, Rickus, and Ambler...Research Report 1983 Developing PerformanceMeasures for Manned-Unmanned Teaming Skills John E. Stewart and

Theoretical analyses of (optimal) performancemeasures are typically performed within the realm of the linear agency model. This model implies that, for a given compensation scheme, the agent’s optimal effort is unrelated to the amount of noise in the performancemeasure. In contrast, expectancy

Theoretical analyses of (optimal) performancemeasures are typically performed within the realm of the linear agency model. An important implication of this model is that, for a given compensation scheme, the agent's optimal effort choice is unrelated to the amount of noise in the performancemeasur

In this article we study the relation between performancemeasures and preferences functions. In particular, we examine to what extent performancemeasures can be used as alternatives for preference functions. We study the Sharpe ratio, Sharpe’s alpha, the expected return measure, the Sortino ratio,

To determine the transverse relaxation time (T{sub 2}) of biological tissues in nuclear magnetic resonance measurements, the Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) method has been recommended to avoid the effect of external magnetic field inhomogeneity on T{sub 2} values. However, a dependence of T{sub 2} on the interpulse delay time (IPDT) in the CPMG measurements has been shown for biological tissues. The present study examined the dependence of the T{sub 2} on IPDT for muscle, lung (passively collapsed or degassed), and brain tissues. It was found that the CPMG T{sub 2} of the lung was strongly dependent upon the IPDT, in contrast to muscle and brain tissues. The IPDT dependence of the CPMG T{sub 2} for lung tissue, which was lessened by degassing, was affected by the magnetic field inhomogeneity due to air-tissue interfaces, but not by the spin-locking effect, since the T{sub 2} measured by the Carr-Purcell-Freeman-Hill (CPFH) method did not show this dependence. These results should aid in the evaluation of T{sub 2} values for biological tissues measured under various conditions and by different techniques. (author)

Complex permittivity measurements were performed on sorbitol, xylitol, and sorbitol-xylitol mixture in the supercooled liquid state in an extremely wide frequency range from 10 μHz to 500 MHz at temperatures near and above the glass transition temperature. We determined detailed behavior of the relaxation parameters such as relaxation frequency and broadening against temperature not only for the α process but also for the β process above the glass transition temperature, to the best of our knowledge, for the first time. Since supercooled liquids are in the quasi-equilibrium state, the behavior of all the relaxation parameters for the β process can be compared among the polyols as well as those for the α process. The relaxation frequencies of the α processes follow the Vogel-Fulcher-Tammann manner and the loci in the Arrhenius diagram are different corresponding to the difference of the glass transition temperatures. On the other hand, the relaxation frequencies of the β processes, which are often called as the Johari-Goldstein processes, follow the Arrhenius-type temperature dependence. The relaxation parameters for the β process are quite similar among the polyols at temperatures below the αβ merging temperature, TM. However, they show anomalous behavior near TM, which depends on the molecular size of materials. These results suggest that the origin of the β process is essentially the same among the polyols.

Investigation of O2-N collisions is performed by means of the quasi-classical trajectory method on the two lowest ab initio potential energy surfaces at temperatures relevant to hypersonic flows. A complete set of bound-bound and bound-free transition rates is obtained for each precollisional rovibrational state. Special attention is paid to the vibrational and rotational relaxations of oxygen as a result of chemically non-reactive interaction with nitrogen atoms. The vibrational relaxation of oxygen partially occurs via the formation of an intermediate NO2 complex. The efficient energy randomization results in rapid vibrational relaxation at low temperatures, compared to other molecular systems with a purely repulsive potential. The vibrational relaxation time, computed by means of master equation studies, is nearly an order of magnitude lower than the relaxation time in N2-O collisions. The rotational nonequilibrium starts to play a significant effect at translational temperatures above 8000 K. The present work provides convenient relations for the vibrational and rotational relaxation times as well as for the quasi-steady dissociation rate coefficient and thus fills a gap in data due to a lack of experimental measurements for this system.

The Photovoltaic Module and Systems Performance and Engineering Project at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory performs indoor and outdoor standardization, testing, and monitoring of the performance of a wide range of photovoltaic (PV) energy conversion devices and systems. The PV Radiometric Measurements and Evaluation Team (PVSRME) within that project is responsible for measurement and characterization of natural and artificial optical radiation which stimulates the PV effect. The PV manufacturing and research and development community often approaches project members for technical information and guidance. A great area of interest is radiometric instrumentation, measurement techniques, and data analysis applied to understanding and improving PV cell, module, and system performance. At the Photovoltaic Radiometric Measurements Workshop conducted by the PVSRME team in July 1995, the need to communicate knowledge of solar and optical radiometric measurements and instrumentation, gained as a result of NREL`s long-term experiences, was identified as an activity that would promote improved measurement processes and measurement quality in the PV research and manufacturing community. The purpose of this document is to address the practical and engineering need to understand optical and solar radiometric instrument performance, selection, calibration, installation, and maintenance applicable to indoor and outdoor radiometric measurements for PV calibration, performance, and testing applications. An introductory section addresses radiometric concepts and definitions. Next, concepts essential to spectral radiometric measurements are discussed. Broadband radiometric instrumentation and measurement concepts are then discussed. Each type of measurement serves as an important component of the PV cell, module, and system performancemeasurement and characterization process.

textabstractThis study investigates the extent to which Dutch organizations use ‘new’ performancemeasures to deal with the perceived inadequacies of traditional accounting performancemeasures. In addition, the determinants of the use of these ‘new’ performancemeasures are documented; finally, the

Objective: Although evidence has already demonstrated that the performance of Health Delivery System (HDS) varies widely across nations, relatively little is known about the factors that give rise to these variations and the key point to improve the performance besides adjusting system structure. By setup of HDS performancemeasurement system on the base of association of financial, social, and environmental characteristics, we construct system dynamic model of HDS to simulate the invention policies. Methods:Performancemeasures were collected from HDS in 31 regions of China and combined with secondary data sources. Multivariate, linear, nonlinear regression and factor analysis models were used to estimate associations between system characteristics and the performance. Results: Performance varied significantly with the size, financial resources and organizational structure of HDS. Performancemeasurement system of health delivery system was developed to give the rank of all Chinese regions. Conclusion: Performancemeasurement system of HDS is the basic of HDS modeling by system dynamic.

This paper analyzes empirically the relationship between pay and performance. Economic and psychological theories predict that the design and implementation of a performancemeasurement and compensation system affect the motivation of employees. Our survey results demonstrate a positive relationship

This paper analyzes empirically the relationship between pay and performance. Economic and psychological theories predict that the design and implementation of a performancemeasurement and compensation system affect the motivation of employees. Our survey results demonstrate a positive relationship

Even though the literature available within the field of performancemeasurement and management (PMM) is extensive, a gap exists regarding how change is managed in performancemeasures (PM). This gap is corroborated by the empirical data underlining that only a few organisations have mechanisms in place for managing PM change. The need to manage change in PM arises from the consensus that performancemeasurement systems (PMS) should reflect the strategy and direct environments of the company...

Full Text Available The aim of this study is to identify recommendations as well as the main performance indicator for developing a performancemeasurement system (PMS for product lifecycle management (PLM approach. Thus it was performed a systematic literature review that identified 22 recommendations and 296 performance indicators.

Various studies have demonstrated that involving employees in the development of performancemeasures can lead to improved employee performance. Yet to date it is unclear how such performance improvement comes about. In order to enable companies to improve the performance of their employees, this di

A protein molecule possesses many conformational substates that are likely arranged in a hierarchy consisting of a number of tiers. A hierarchical organization of conformational substates is expected to give rise to a multitude of nonequilibrium relaxation phenomena. If the temperature is lowered, transitions between substates of higher tiers are frozen out, and relaxation processes characteristic of lower tiers will dominate the observational time scale. This thesis addresses the following questions: (i) What is the energy landscape of a protein? How does the landscape depend on the environment such as pH and viscosity, and how can it be connected to specific structural parts? (ii) What relaxation phenomena can be observed in a protein? Which are protein specific, and which occur in other proteins? How does the environment influence relaxations? (iii) What functional form best describes relaxation functions? (iv) Can we connect the motions to specific structural parts of the protein molecule, and are these motions important for the function of the protein?. To this purpose, relaxation processes after a pressure change are studied in carbonmonoxy (CO) heme proteins (myoglobin-CO, substrate-bound and substrate-free cytochrome P450cam-CO, chloroperoxidase-CO, horseradish peroxidase -CO) between 150 K and 250 K using FTIR spectroscopy to monitor the CO bound to the heme iron. Two types of p -relaxation experiments are performed: p-release (200 to ~eq40 MPa) and p-jump (~eq40 to 200 MPa) experiments. Most of the relaxations fall into one of three groups and are characterized by (i) nonexponential time dependence and non-Arrhenius temperature dependence (FIM1( nu), FIM1(Gamma)); (ii) exponential time dependence and non-Arrhenius temperature dependence (FIM0(A_{i}to A_{j})); exponential time dependence and Arrhenius temperature dependence (FIMX( nu)). The influence of pH is studied in myoglobin-CO and shown to have a strong influence on the substate population of the

A discussion of the interrelated aspects of library performancemeasurement and what data collection means to library planning. Methodologies considered are cost analysis, quantitative vs qualitative measurement, community analysis, and citizen attitudes and opinions. (JAB)

Two locations in Cincinnati were instrumented with level sensing technologies to measure stormwater flow in porous pavement and bioretention areas. Results indicate good performance of porous pavement and a cost effective application of technology to measure those flows. Result...

... and Transformation all represent efforts to find and implement effective answers (RAND, 2003:ix). And, while there appears to be a consensus that better performancemeasures are needed, there is little agreement on exactly what should be measured, and how...

AimsTroponin elevation is common in acute heart failure (AHF) and may be useful for prognostication; however, available data are mixed and many previous studies used older, less sensitive assays. We examined the association between serial measurements of high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT)

In this paper, we report for the first time an estimation of hot electron relaxation time in GaN using electrical measurements. Hot electron transistors (HETs) with GaN as the base layer and different base-emitter barrier-height configurations and base thicknesses were fabricated. Common-base measurements were performed to extract the differential transfer ratio, and an exponential decay of the transfer ratio with increasing base thickness was observed. A hot electron mean free path was extracted from the corresponding exponential fitting and a relaxation time was computed, which, for low energy injection, matched well with theoretically predicted relaxation times based on longitudinal optical (LO) phonon scattering.

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) has presented serious challenges to both the World Organisation for Animal Health and national governments, in defining and implementing appropriate national control measures, and in agreeing trade rules that permit safe trade in cattle and bovine products. Precautionary trade rules were initially necessary, based upon the science of sheep scrapie, but research into BSE later enabled BSE-specific trade rules to be developed. As a result, current rules on trade are underpinned by a sound body of knowledge on BSE. Declining epidemics in most affected countries confirm the appropriateness of current precautions. Nevertheless, risk is primarily dependent on the prevalence of infection with BSE. In the face of low prevalence scenarios, certain precautionary measures in the Terrestrial Animal Health Code may now be considered excessive. A thorough review is therefore deemed appropriate.

Injecting spin-polarized electrons or holes into a superconductor and removing Cooper pairs creates both spin and charge imbalances. We have investigated the relaxation of the out-of-equilibrium magnetization induced by spin injection. First, we measured the spin and charge relaxation times (t{sub S} and t{sub Q}) by creating a dynamic equilibrium between continuous injection and relaxation, this leads to constant-in-time spin and charge accumulation proportional to their respective relaxation times. Using a mesoscopic ''absolute'' spin-valve, we obtained t{sub S} and t{sub Q} by probing the difference on the chemical potential between quasiparticles and Cooper pairs. We observed that spin (charge) accumulation dominates at low (high) injection current. This artificially generates spin-charge separation as theoretically first predicted by Kivelson and Rokhsar. Second, we directly measured the spin relaxation time in the frequency space and found t{sub S} = 1-10 ns consistent with results from constant current injection. Finally, we measured the spin coherence time of the out-of-equilibrium quasi-particles by performing an electron spin resonance experiment.

Patient stress and anxiety are common preoperatively and during dermatologic procedures and surgeries. Stress and anxiety can occasionally interfere with performance of procedures or surgery and can induce hemodynamic instability, such as elevated blood pressure or syncope, as well as producing considerable discomfort for some patients. Detection of excess stress and anxiety in patients can allow the opportunity for corrective or palliative measures. Slower breathing, biofeedback, progressive muscular relaxation, guided imagery, hypnosis, meditation and music can help calm and rebalance the patient's autonomic nervous system and immune functioning. Handheld miniaturized heart rate variability biofeedback devices are now available. The relaxation response can easily be taught. Guided imagery can be recorded or live. Live rapid induction hypnosis followed by deepening and then self-guided imagery requires no experience on the part of the patient but does require training and experience on the part of a provider. Recorded hypnosis inductions may also be used. Meditation generally requires more prior experience and training, but is useful when the patient already is skilled in it. Live, guided meditation or meditation recordings may be used. Relaxing recorded music from speakers or headphones or live performance music may also be employed to ease discomfort and improve the patient's attitude for dermatologic procedures and surgeries.

... R S T U V W X Y Z Relaxation Techniques for Health Share: On This Page What’s the ... Bottom Line? How much do we know about relaxation techniques? A substantial amount of research has been done ...

We present a study of the spin dynamics of Fe_4(OCH_3)_6(dpm)_6 single molecule magnet by means of SQUID magnetization and muon relaxation (µ^(+)SR) measurements. In longitudinal field µ^+SR experiments performed at magnetic fields H=200, 1000 Oe, the muon asymmetry P(t) could be fitted by means of three components, the first constant, the second fast relaxing through a quasiexponential decay, and the third, the slowest relaxing, showing an exponential decay. The slowest muon relaxation rate ...

The operations of any portion of the healthcare delivery system, eg, ambulatory care, the consultation and referral process, or hospital care, are critically dependent upon their control systems. The quality of health care produced by the system and its components is also subject to "control." One of the regulatory mechanisms involves performancemeasures. The development of good measures of quality is a complex and dynamic process. Within endocrinology, most measures have addressed diabetes care and most quality measurement in diabetes has focused on the ambulatory setting and mainly includes measures of process and intermediate outcomes. This review addresses quality and performancemeasures for diabetes, their development, characteristics, use, misuse, and future prospects.

The temperature-dependent property of the Grueneisen parameter has been employed in photoacoustic imaging mainly to measure tissue temperature. Here we explore this property using a different approach and develop Grueneisen-relaxation photoacoustic microscopy (GR-PAM), a technique that images non-radiative absorption with confocal optical resolution. GR-PAM sequentially delivers two identical laser pulses with a micro-second-scale time delay. The first laser pulse generates a photoacoustic signal and thermally tags the in-focus absorbers. Owing to the temperature dependence of the Grueneisen parameter, when the second laser pulse excites the tagged absorbers within the thermal relaxation time, a photoacoustic signal stronger than the first one is produced. GR-PAM detects the amplitude difference between the two co-located photoacoustic signals, confocally imaging the non-radiative absorption. We greatly improved axial resolution from 45 µm to 2.3 µm and at the same time slightly improved lateral resolution from 0.63 µm to 0.41 µm. In addition, the optical sectioning capability facilitates the measurement of the absolute absorption coefficient without fluence calibration. PMID:25379919

Translation of photovoltaic performancemeasurements is required when a measurement is made under conditions different from those specified in standard measurement procedures. These specifications can be categorized into three areas: the device temperature at the time of measurement; the total incident irradiance level; and the spectral distribution of the incident irradiance. If these three conditions are identical to those specified in the standard measurement procedures, then no translation is required. However, because in practice the standard measurement conditions can be very difficult (and expensive) to achieve, one or more of these three conditions will generally be different and translation is then necessary. In general, the method used for translation is to know how a device responds to different conditions, measure the difference at the time the performance is determined, and correct the performancemeasurement to the standard conditions.

Full Text Available It has been seen for the past few years that the revival of waqf institutions has been an upsurge interest of Muslim communities around the world. In line with the revitalization, the issues of measuring and managing waqf performance are growingly being discussed and concerned by the academicians and constituents. Waqf institutions need to demonstrate their performance as whether they have effectively and efficiently managed in order to discharge their accountability to various waqf stakeholders. There are many studies conducted to measure the performance of various organizations in the private, public and third sector. However, studies on the performancemeasurement of waqf institution are still limited, and financial ratios become the dominant measurement in those studies. Being a non-profit in nature and religious entity, managing the entrusted waqf assets for social and economic development of the society, the performancemeasurement of waqf institutions should also focus on realizing their missions. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to discuss both financial and non-financial measurement that can be adapted by waqf institutions to assess their performance in discharging their accountability. Drawing from the experience on performancemeasurement discussed in the non-profit organizations literatures, this conceptual paper is hoped to provide significant insight on how waqf institutions performance may be measured and provide a tool to benchmark the best practices that can guide them to achieve their goals and missions.

A brief overview of the challenges associated with demonstrating organizational effectiveness and the role of performancemeasures as surrogates for demonstrating effectiveness are provided. The complexity of analysis and the importance of use of performancemeasures provide a way to review the strengths and weakness of eight different ways to…

A brief overview of the challenges associated with demonstrating organizational effectiveness and the role of performancemeasures as surrogates for demonstrating effectiveness are provided. The complexity of analysis and the importance of use of performancemeasures provide a way to review the strengths and weakness of eight different ways to…

The latent period of relaxation of molluscan myocardium due to anodal current is much longer than that of contraction. Although the rate and the grade of relaxation are intimately related to both the stimulus condition and the muscle tension, the latent period of relaxation remains constant, except when the temperature of the bathing fluid is changed.

The use of performancemeasures and performancemeasurement frameworks has increased significantly in recent years. The type and variety of performancemeasures in use has been researched in various countries and linked to different variables such as the external environment, performance measurem......The use of performancemeasures and performancemeasurement frameworks has increased significantly in recent years. The type and variety of performancemeasures in use has been researched in various countries and linked to different variables such as the external environment, performance...... measurement frameworks, and management characteristics. This paper reports the results of a study carried out at year end 2013 of the use of performancemeasures by Icelandic companies and the links to perceived environmental uncertainty, management satisfaction with the performancemeasurement system...... and the perceived performance of the company. The sample was the 300 largest companies in Iceland and the response rate was 27%. Compared to other studies the majority of the respondents use a surprisingly high number of different measures – both financial and non-financial. This made testing of the three...

This investigation examined the effects of relaxing music for anxiety control on measures of competitive state anxiety and the performance of a simple motor skill. Seventy-two undergraduate students volunteered to participate in the study. Participants were informed that they would be required to partake in a sport competition, possibly with an audience present, and possibly whilst being filmed. Participants were randomly allocated to one of three intervention conditions, listening to relaxing music for anxiety control, listening to non-relaxing music or a no music control. During the 10-minute intervention period, measures of anxiety (CSAI-2R, subjective relaxation and HR) were taken on three occasions (baseline, pre-intervention and post-intervention). Repeated measures MANOVA showed that all three interventions provoked significant reductions in competitive state anxiety. Condition had no impact upon any of the DVs. These results suggest that listening to relaxing music for anxiety control was no more effective at reducing competitive state anxiety than non-relaxing music or a period of silence. ES, mean difference and 90% CI data did however provide some support for the application of relaxing music for anxiety control. There were no between-condition differences in motor task performance.

Frustrated by the inadequacies of traditional performancemeasurement systems, some managers have abandoned financial measures like return on equity and earnings per share. "Make operational improvements and the numbers will follow," the argument goes. But managers do not want to choose between financial and operational measures. Executives want a balanced presentation of measures that allow them to view the company from several perspectives simultaneously. During a year-long research project with 12 companies at the leading edge of performancemeasurement, the authors developed a "balanced scorecard," a new performancemeasurement system that gives top managers a fast but comprehensive view of the business. The balanced scorecard includes financial measures that tell the results of actions already taken. And it complements those financial measures with three sets of operational measures having to do with customer satisfaction, internal processes, and the organization's ability to learn and improve--the activities that drive future financial performance. Managers can create a balanced scorecard by translating their company's strategy and mission statements into specific goals and measures. To create the part of the scorecard that focuses on the customer perspective, for example, executives at Electronic Circuits Inc. established general goals for customer performance: get standard products to market sooner, improve customers' time-to-market, become customers' supplier of choice through partnerships, and develop innovative products tailored to customer needs. Managers translated these elements of strategy into four specific goals and identified a measure for each.

Theoretical analyses of (optimal) performancemeasures are typically performed within the realm of the linear agency model. An important implication of this model is that, for a given compensation scheme, the agent's optimal effort choice is unrelated to the amount of noise in the performancemeasure. In contrast, expectancy theory as developed by psychologists predicts that effort levels are increasing in the signal-to-noise ratio. We conduct a real effort laboratory experiment to assess the...

Theoretical analyses of (optimal) performancemeasures are typically performed within the realm of the linear agency model. An important implication of this model is that, for a given compensation scheme, the agent's optimal effort choice is unrelated to the amount of noise in the performancemeasure. In contrast, expectancy theory as developed by psychologists predicts that effort levels are increasing in the signal-to-noise ratio. We conduct a real effort laboratory experiment to assess the...

The content validity of marketing performancemeasurement metrics in China is reported. Based on the respondents in the research, the statistic analysis of relative importance, and the frequencies of use of marketing metrics are given. It is shown that the marketing metrics are consistent with market orientation, sectors and the role of managers, that affect the way in measuring marketing performance. The investigation results provide certified basis for developing marketing performance assessment systems in Chinese enterprises.

The article analyzes the performancemeasurement processes within the small medium-sized enterprises that run businesses in Romania's tourism sector. Related to contemporary approaches to improving business performance in the management literature, performancemeasurement approaches are analyzed using the balanced scorecard framework. Balanced scorecards proved to be a powerful tool that can inform the managers about the things that are working or not within a company, what is to be improved ...

Theoretical analyses of (optimal) performancemeasures are typically performed within the realm of the linear agency model. An important implication of this model is that, for a given compensation scheme, the agent's optimal effort choice is unrelated to the amount of noise in the performance

The thermal design of the KB module is presented. A Finite Elements Analysis (FEA) has been used to finalize the module design. The thermal performance of an outer irradiated KB module has been measured at different cooling conditions. The thermal runaway of the module has been measured. The FEA model has been compared with the measurements and has been used to predict the thermal performance in a realistic SCT scenario.

or operational strategies seem to favor financial measures and are less likely to use non-financial measures. We take this research further by focusing not only on the link between strategy types and performancemeasures but also on what specific performancemeasures are used in connection to which strategies......Past research seems to suggest that companies adopting certain strategies favor certain sets of performancemeasures. That is to say companies using entrepreneurial focused strategies favor non-financial measures or a balanced mix of financial and non-financial measures. Companies adopting reactive....... Furthermore, we examine the link between the strategies adopted, the performancemeasures favored and the financial performance of the companies. The empirical data collection was carried out in winter 2013 with a population of the 300 largest companies in Iceland. The survey was sent to the CFO...

An objective performancemeasure for image fusion considering region information is proposed. The measure not only reflects how much the pixel level information that fused image takes from the source image, but also considers the region information between source images and fused image. The measure is meaningful and explicit. Several simulations were conducted to show that it accords well with the subjective evaluations.

Electronically controlled photon-echo relaxationmeasurements, using two nitrogen pumped dye-lasers, are reported for mixed crystals of pentacene-h14 and -d14 in p-terphenyl-h14 at 1.5 K. In dilute mixed crystals (ca. 10-8 M) the photon-echo lifetime is found to be exclusively determined by the fluo

Dielectric measurements have been made in thick films (˜100 μm) of polyvinyl butyral (PVB) having degree of polymerization n=1600, in the frequency range 100 Hz-100 KHz and temperature range 300-373 K. The results indicated that PVB was in the amorphous phase and observed dielectric dispersion has been assigned as the β-relaxation process. The β relaxation is of Debye type with symmetrical distribution of relaxation times. The dielectric relaxation strength Δɛ and the distribution parameters β¯ increase with temperature. The results can be qualitatively explained by assuming the hindered rotation of the side groups involving hydroxyl/acetate groups.

Full Text Available This paper extends the view of image processing performancemeasure presenting the use of this measure as an actual value in a feedback structure. The idea behind is that the control loop, which is built in that way, drives the actual feedback value to a given set point. Since the performancemeasure depends explicitly on the application, the inclusion of feedback structures and choice of appropriate feedback variables are presented on example of optical character recognition in industrial application. Metrics for quantification of performance at different image processing levels are discussed. The issues that those metrics should address from both image processing and control point of view are considered. The performancemeasures of individual processing algorithms that form a character recognition system are determined with respect to the overall system performance.

The multi-instance dictionary plays a critical role in multi-instance data representation. Meanwhile, different multi-instance learning applications are evaluated by specific multivariate performancemeasures. For example, multi-instance ranking reports the precision and recall. It is not difficult to see that to obtain different optimal performancemeasures, different dictionaries are needed. This observation motives us to learn performance-optimal dictionaries for this problem. In this paper, we propose a novel joint framework for learning the multi-instance dictionary and the classifier to optimize a given multivariate performancemeasure, such as the F1 score and precision at rank k. We propose to represent the bags as bag-level features via the bag-instance similarity, and learn a classifier in the bag-level feature space to optimize the given performancemeasure. We propose to minimize the upper bound of a multivariate loss corresponding to the performancemeasure, the complexity of the classifier, and the complexity of the dictionary, simultaneously, with regard to both the dictionary and the classifier parameters. In this way, the dictionary learning is regularized by the performance optimization, and a performance-optimal dictionary is obtained. We develop an iterative algorithm to solve this minimization problem efficiently using a cutting-plane algorithm and a coordinate descent method. Experiments on multi-instance benchmark data sets show its advantage over both traditional multi-instance learning and performance optimization methods.

The Office of Adolescent Health (OAH) sought to create a comprehensive set of performancemeasures to capture the performance of the Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) program. This performancemeasurement system needed to provide measures that could be used internally (by both OAH and the TPP grantees) for management and program improvement as well as externally to communicate the program's progress to other interested stakeholders and Congress. This article describes the selected measures and outlines the considerations behind the TPP measurement development process. Issues faced, challenges encountered, and lessons learned have broad applicability for other federal agencies and, specifically, for TPP programs interested in assessing their own performance and progress.

We have demonstrated that morphologically distinct regions of the murine placenta can be detected by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), with image contrast arising from the variation in T2 relaxation times between regions and dependent upon blood flow. Previous studies of human placenta by other groups have shown a homogeneous tissue with correlation of relaxation times with gestational age and a trend for shorter relaxation times in pregnancies complicated by preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction. The ability to detect morphological changes and alterations in blood flow in experimental models of preeclampsia would be a significant boost in understanding the relationship between abnormal placental implantation, reduced placental perfusion, inflammatory cytokines, angiogenic molecules and other factors that may play a role in the syndrome. The aim of this study was to investigate whether morphological changes or abnormalities can be detected by T2 mapping in the placenta of mice subject to two experimental models of preeclampsia (reduced uterine perfusion pressure (RUPP) model and TNF-α induced model). Pregnant C57BL/6JArc mice were, on day 13.5 of gestation, either subject to a unilateral ligation of the right uterine artery (RUPP) (n=2) or given an infusion of TNF-α by subcutaneous insertion of a mini-osmotic pump primed to deliver 500ng/kg/day for 4days (n=2). Controls were normal pregnant (n=2), sham-operated (n=1) or saline infused animals(n=1). MRI images were acquired on anaesthetised mice on day 17.5 of gestation using a Bruker Avance 11.7 Tesla wide-bore spectrometer with micro-imaging probe capable of generating gradients of 0.45T/m. T2 measurements were acquired using an MSME sequence protocol (Bruker MSME-T2-map) with an in-plane resolution of 0.1-0.2mm. Matlab was used to generate R2 (i.e.,1/T2) maps from the acquired data with the T2 values being calculated from selected regions of interest from 2-6 individual placenta from each mouse. Differences

In this Technical Note, we present a family of Jacobi-based multigrid smoothers suitable for the solution of discretized elliptic equations. These smoothers are based on the idea of scheduled-relaxation Jacobi proposed recently by Yang & Mittal (2014) [18] and employ two or three successive relaxed Jacobi iterations with relaxation factors derived so as to maximize the smoothing property of these iterations. The performance of these new smoothers measured in terms of convergence acceleration and computational workload, is assessed for multi-domain implementations typical of parallelized solvers, and compared to the lexicographic point Gauss-Seidel smoother. The tests include the geometric multigrid method on structured grids as well as the algebraic grid method on unstructured grids. The tests demonstrate that unlike Gauss-Seidel, the convergence of these Jacobi-based smoothers is unaffected by domain decomposition, and furthermore, they outperform the lexicographic Gauss-Seidel by factors that increase with domain partition count.

Investigation of the magnetic field dependence of proton spin-lattice relaxation in solutions of bovine fibrinogen has been performed for Larmor frequencies between 50 Hz and 60 MHz, and complemented with measurements of spin-spin relaxation rates at 2 kHz and 25 MHz. A thorough analysis of experimental data, including the effects of protein concentration, temperature, pH and isotopic dilution, leads to an overall relaxation scheme consistent with T1 and T2 values at both low and high magnetic fields. The scheme involves water molecules slightly anisotropically bound on proteins as well as slow exchanging protein protons magnetically coupled to solute nuclei. A coherent picture, reminiscent of the traditional hydration layer, can be obtained for bound water. A major conclusion is that transfer of single protons may contribute substantially to the chemical exchange between free and bound water.

Internal friction and micro-creep measurements were performed with high-purity Al bamboo-crystal specimens. The relaxation strength was found to decrease with the decrease of the temperature of measurement and became zero at about 0.4 T sub m, (T sub m being melting temperature). This reflects the occurrence of local disordering in the bamboo boundary region at this temperature. This result conforms to the picture of grain boundary disordering constructed by atomic simulation studies.

Translation of photovoltaic performancemeasurements is required when a measurement is made under conditions which are different from those specified in standard measurement procedures. These specifications can be categorized into three areas: the device temperature at the time of measurement; the total incident irradiance level; and the spectral distribution of the incident irradiance. If these three conditions are identical to those specified in the standard measurement procedures, then no translation is required. However, because in practice the standard measurement conditions can be very difficult (and expensive) to achieve, one or more of these three conditions will generally be different and translation is then necessary.

The superparamagnetic relaxation time of carbon-supported alpha-Fe particles with an average size of 3.0 Mm has been studied over a large temperature range by the use of Mossbauer spectroscopy combined with AC and DC magnetization measurements. It is found that the relaxation time varies with tem...

This experimental study of the magnetic field-temperature phase diagram and of the vortex dynamics in high- T{sub c} superconductors focuses on Bismuth-based cuprates: Bi{sub 2}Sr{sub 2}CaCu{sub 2}O{sub 8}. In type-II superconductors, mixed state characterized by the presence of vortices (quanta of magnetic flux) is divided by a transition line determined by two features of magnetization loops. For T > 40 K, magnetization loops vs applied field show a step evidence of a first order transition. From 20 to 40 K, a second peak replacing the step correspond to an abrupt increase of irreversibility interpreted as a bulk current. We want to understand the nature of the second peak (thermodynamic or nonequilibrium property) and separate phenomena contributing to irreversibility (flux pinning, geometrical or surface effects). Magnetic measurement techniques are nondestructive and have a resolution of few microns. Bi{sub 2}Sr{sub 2}CaCu{sub 2}O{sub 8} single crystals are optimized by localizing defectives regions with a magneto-optic technique for flux imaging and elimination of these regions with a wire saw. Local magnetization loops and relaxationmeasurementsperformed with a microscopic Hall probe array allow to distinguish irreversibility sources. The shape of induction profiles indicates which current dominate between surface current and bulk pinning induced current. Two crossover with time and a direct observation of two phases coexistence in induction profiles enlighten phenomena in play. The measured electric field-current density characteristics lead to barrier energy U(j) controlling thermally activated flux motion. Three relations (U(j) (surface, bulk low and high field) explain second peak. (author)

Polarizing beam splitter (PBS) is a critical optical component in projection display system because PBS performance greatly influences the contrast and brightness of the system. PBS performance is usually measured by spectrophotometer after coating and cementing, but the measured result cannot represent the actual performance in practice because people usually change the incident angle in one plane (horizontal plane) and do not consider the other plane (vertical plane). Geometrical polarization rotation occurring at reduced F-number influences the measuring precision of s-polarization transmittance (Ts) and p-polarization reflectance (Rp). A more accurate and practical way to measure the performance of broadband, wide-angle PBS is presented in this paper.

Reviews the book "PerformanceMeasurement and Management Control: A Compendium of Research Studies in Managerial and Financial Accounting Series," vol. 12, edited by Marc J. Epstein and Jean-Francois Manzoni.

The rising operating cost of providing healthcare is of concern to health care providers. As such, measurement of procurement performance will enable competitive advantage and provide a framework for continuous improvement. The objective of this paper is to develop a procurement performancemeasurement system. The paper reviews the existing literature in procurement performancemeasurement to identify the key areas of purchasing performance. By studying the three components in the supply chain collectively with the resources, procedures and output, a model is been developed. Additionally, a balanced scorecard is proposed by establishing a set of generic measures and six perspectives. A case study conducted at the Singapore Hospital applies the conceptual model to describe the purchasing department and the activities within and outside the department. The results indicate that the material management department has already made a good start in measuring the procurement process through the implementation of the balanced scorecard. There are many data that are collected but not properly collated and utilized. Areas lacking measurement include cycle time of delivery, order processing time, effectiveness, efficiency and reliability. Though a lot of hard work was involved, the advantages of establishing a measurement system outweigh the costs and efforts involved in its implementation. Results of balanced scorecard measurements provide decision-makers with critical information on efficiency and effectiveness of the purchasing department's work. The measurement model developed could be used for any hospital procurement system.

Measurements of the proton NMR paramagnetic relaxation rates for several series of isostructural lanthanide(III) complexes have been performed in aqueous solution over the field range 1.0 to 16.5 Tesla. The field dependence has been modeled using Bloch-Redfield-Wangsness theory, allowing values for the electronic relaxation time, Tle and the magnetic susceptibility, μeff, to be estimated. Anomalous relaxation rate profiles were obtained, notably for erbium and thulium complexes of low symmetry 8-coordinate aza-phosphinate complexes. Such behaviour challenges accepted theory and can be interpreted in terms of changes in Tle values that are a function of the transient ligand field induced by solvent collision and vary considerably between Ln(3+) ions, along with magnetic susceptibilities that deviate significantly from free-ion values.

Full Text Available The article describes methods of performancemeasuring in Slovenian public libraries, and calls attention to the problems attached to it. The argued presumption is that the performancemeasuring carried out on the state level, is not always a sufficient and adequate foundation for plarming of the developmenl and functioning of an individual library which has to cater for the needs and wishes of the population in a certain area.

Hospital administrators must have timely, valid, and interpretable financial information that allows them to make operational decisions in response to the threats of the changing health care environment. Aggregate indexes that reflect dimensions of hospital financial performance and simplify the information in financial ratios are needed to aid in decision making. This article reviews the development and use of hospital financial performancemeasures and lays the groundwork for research into deriving a multidimensional measure.

This thesis presents the findings from two case study examinations of strategic performancemeasurement systems within two turbulent environmental contexts: the U.S. security software industry and the U.S. health care industry. Despite a three-­‐decade emphasis on performancemeasurement research, little empirical work has been carried out inside turbulent settings—contexts characterized by rapid change, high levels of instability and complex configurations among environmental variables. T...

Though competitive analysis has been a very useful performancemeasure for the quality of online algorithms, it is recognized that it sometimes fails to distinguish between algorithms of different quality in practice. A number of alternative measures have been proposed, but, with a few exceptions, these have generally been applied only to the online problem they were developed in connection with. Recently, a systematic study of performancemeasures for online algorithms was initiated [Boyar, Irani, Larsen: Eleventh International Algorithms and Data Structures Symposium 2009], first focusing on a simple server problem. We continue this work by studying a fundamentally different online problem, online search, and the Reservation Price Policies in particular. The purpose of this line of work is to learn more about the applicability of various performancemeasures in different situations and the properties that the different measures emphasize. We investigate the following analysis techniques: Competitive, Relati...

A large percentage of older people suffer from chronic insomnia, affecting many aspects of life quality and well-being. Although insomnia is most often treated with medication, a growing number of studies demonstrate the efficiency of various relaxation techniques. The present study had three aims: first, to compare two relaxation techniques--music relaxation and progressive muscular relaxation--on various objective and subjective measures of sleep quality; second, to examine the effect of these techniques on anxiety and depression; and finally, to explore possible relationships between the efficiency of both techniques and personality variables. Fifteen older adults took part in the study. Following one week of base-line measurements of sleep quality, participants followed one week of music relaxation and one week of progressive muscular relaxation before going to sleep. Order of relaxation techniques was controlled. Results show music relaxation was more efficient in improving sleep. Sleep efficiency was higher after music relaxation than after progressive muscular relaxation. Moreover, anxiety was lower after music relaxation. Progressive muscular relaxation was related to deterioration of sleep quality on subjective measures. Beyond differences between the relaxation techniques, extraverts seemed to benefit more from both music and progressive muscular relaxation. The advantage of non-pharmacological means to treat insomnia, and the importance of taking individual differences into account are discussed.

Full Text Available Abstract: In Today’s competitive markets, one of the main conditions of the surviving of enterprises is the necessity to have effective performance management systems. Decisions must be taken by the management according to the performance of assets. In the transition from industrial society to information society, the presence of business structures have changed and the values of non-financial assets have increased in this period. So some systems have emerged based on intangible assets and to measure them instead of tangible assets and their measurements. With economic and technological development multi-dimensional evaluation in the business couldn’t be sufficient. Performance evaluation methods can be applied in business with an integrated approach by its accordance with business strategy, linking to reward system and cause effects link established between performancemeasures. Balanced scorecard is one of the commonly used in measurement methods. While it was used for the first time in 1992 as a performancemeasurement tool today it has been used as a strategic management model besides its conventional uses. BSC contains customer perspective, internal perspective and learning and growth perspective besides financial perspective. Learning and growth perspective is determinant of other perspectives. In order to achieve the objectives set out in the financial perspective in other dimensions that need to be accomplished, is emphasized. Establishing a causal link between performancemeasures and targets how to achieve specified goals with strategy maps are described.

The purpose of this study was to develop performancemeasure indicators for hospital nursing units based on a Balanced Scorecard (BSC). This study was a methodological study. The development process consisted of 3 stages. The first stage was setting up strategies for nursing units from a nursing department's mission and vision. The second stage was developing performancemeasure indicators after a validity check. The third stage was modifying developed performancemeasure indicators and classifying them. 7 strategies were set up according to 4 perspectives of a BSC. 15 performancemeasure indicators for hospital nursing units were developed, and the indicators were divided into 8 independent indicators and 7 shared indicators according to the degree of performance responsibility. In addition, they were classified into two groups, 7 leading indicators and lagging indicators. The result of this study suggests that performancemeasure indicators for hospital nursing units provide a framework and method for nursing organizations' performance management. Also, the developed indicators are expected to provide valuable information for successful organization management.

Teacher performance evaluation currently is receiving unprecedented attention from policy makers, scholars, and practitioners worldwide. This study is one of the few studies of teacher perceptions regarding teacher performancemeasures that focus on China. We employed a quantitative dominant mixed research design to investigate Chinese teachers'…

The growth of the private corrections industry has elicited interest in the comparative performance of state and private prisons. One way to measure the service quality of private prisons is to examine inmates' postrelease performance. Current empirical evidence is limited to four studies, all conducted in Florida. This analysis replicates and…

When assessing the job proficiency of individuals, it is essential that evaluators receive training to increase the accuracy of their ratings. A job ... performancemeasurement system trainer’s manual was developed for use in training Walk-Through Performance Testing test administrators and raters

The growth of the private corrections industry has elicited interest in the comparative performance of state and private prisons. One way to measure the service quality of private prisons is to examine inmates' postrelease performance. Current empirical evidence is limited to four studies, all conducted in Florida. This analysis replicates and…

There is a growing need for performance management and performancemeasurement that not only covers all aspects of an organisation, but which can be applied to various situations in a changing internal and external environment. The changing organisational and external contexts, such as the increasi

In this paper an introduction to the gLite Grid middleware and one of its most important components, Workload Management System (WMS), responsible for management of user jobs is given.Useful performance metrics of gLite WMS are defined from a Grid application point of view, and preliminary results of performancemeasurements are presented and briefly analyzed.

The innovation performance of regions or nations has been repeatedly measured in the literature. What is missing, however, is a discussion of what innovation performance of a region or nation means. How do regions or nations exactly contribute to the innovation output of firms? And how can this cont

There is a growing need for performance management and performancemeasurement that not only covers all aspects of an organisation, but which can be applied to various situations in a changing internal and external environment. The changing organisational and external contexts, such as the

This study is part of a continuing search for measures of divergent thinking and for better predictors of performance in occupational areas depending on such ways of thinking. Traditional predictors of college performance, i.e., high school GPA and tests of verbal and quantitative aptitude have always worked much better estimating success in…

The innovation performance of regions or nations has been repeatedly measured in the literature. What is missing, however, is a discussion of what innovation performance of a region or nation means. How do regions or nations exactly contribute to the innovation output of firms? And how can this cont

Full Text Available Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between multi-criteria performancemeasurement (MCPM practice and business performance improvement using the raw data collected from 33 selected manufacturing companies. In addition, it proposes modified MCPM model as an effective approach to improve business performance of manufacturing companies. Design/methodology/approach:Research paper. Primary and secondary data were collected using questionnaire survey, interview and observation of records. The methodology is to evaluate business performances of sampled manufacturing companies and the extent of utilization of crucial non-financial (lagging and non-financial (leading performancemeasures. The positive correlation between financial business performance and practice of MCPM is clearly shown using Pearson’s correlation coefficient analysis. Findings –This research paper indicates that companies which measure their performance using important financial and non-financial measures achieve better business performance. Even though certain companies are currently using non-financial measures, the researchers have learned that these financial measures were not integrated with each other, financial measures and strategic objectives. Research limitations/implications: The limitation of this paper is that the number of surveyed companies is small to make generalization and they are found in a single country. Further researches which incorporate a large number of companies from various developing nations are suggested to minimize the limitation of this research.Practical Implication: The paper shows that multi-dimensional performancemeasures with the inclusion of key leading indicator are essential to predict the future environment. But cost-accounting based financial measures are inadequate to do so. These are shown practically using Pearson’s correlation coefficient analysis. Originality/value: The significance of multi

This paper describes a Patient Satisfaction survey and database used to measure and report on physician performance at the Ohio State University Health System (OSUHS). The OSUHS averages 6,000 inpatients in any given month, and more than 7,000 emergency patients and 70,000 outpatient encounters. Data from the Patient Satisfaction measures are…

textabstractWe present the various views and methods of measuring and controlling project performance, and factors affecting a project. The review indicates that there is a shift in the type and understanding of factors of project success or failure. However, the presence of various measurement meth

We present an example analysis and corresponding information graphics of data from a cognitive ability assessment as a means to illustrate the use of a Rasch measurement approach and advantages inherent in such an approach for a wide variety of teaching and learning investigations. The importance of placing measurements of student performances and…

The measurement of impairing effects on driving performance by such external factors as alcohol, medicinal drugs, or mobile telephoning, etc., is extended with a new test. Most existing methods of measuring impairing effects in the actual driving environment have the drawback that, irrespective of h

..., will be composed of elements that support the organizational measures of Customer Satisfaction, Employee Satisfaction, and Business Results; however, such organizational measures will not directly... each employee related to the work of the employee and expressed in terms of individual performance; (2...

The construct validity and construct responsiveness of the performance scale of the Canadian Occupational PerformanceMeasure (COPM) was measured in 87 newly admitted patients with chronic pain attending an outpatient rehabilitation clinic. At admission and after 12 wk, patients completed a COPM

The construct validity and construct responsiveness of the performance scale of the Canadian Occupational PerformanceMeasure (COPM) was measured in 87 newly admitted patients with chronic pain attending an outpatient rehabilitation clinic. At admission and after 12 wk, patients completed a COPM int

Value-added "Progress" measures are to be introduced for all English schools in 2016 as "headline" measures of school performance. This move comes despite research highlighting high levels of instability in value-added measures and concerns about the omission of contextual variables in the planned measure. This article studies…

OBJECTIVES: The theory of relaxation processes and their measurements are described. An overview is presented of the literature on relaxation time measurements in the normal and the developing brain, in experimental diseases in animals, and in patients with multiple sclerosis. RESULTS...... AND CONCLUSION: Relaxation time measurements provide insight into development of multiple sclerosis plaques, especially the occurrence of oedema, demyelination, and gliosis. There is also evidence that normal appearing white matter in patients with multiple sclerosis is affected. What is now needed are fast...

Workflow logs that record the execution of business processes offer very valuable data resource for real-time enterprise performancemeasurement. In this paper, a novel scheme that uses the technology of data warehouse and OLAP to explore workflow logs and create complex analysis reports for enterprise performancemeasurement is proposed. Three key points of this scheme are studied: 1) the measure set; 2) the open and flexible architecture for workflow logs analysis system; 3) the data models in WFMS and data warehouse. A case study that shows the validity of the scheme is also provided.

Full Text Available The safety supervision of radioactive material transportation package has been further stressed and implemented. The shielding performancemeasurements of spent fuel transport container is the important content of supervision. However, some of the problems and difficulties reflected in practice need to be solved, such as the neutron dose rate on the surface of package is too difficult to measure exactly, the monitoring results are not always reliable, etc. The monitoring results using different spectrometers were compared and the simulation results of MCNP runs were considered. An improvement was provided to the shielding performancemeasurements technique and management of spent fuel transport.

What happens when performancemeasurement and management (PMM) is applied to public health systems? This review of the experiences of high-income jurisdictions reveals considerable challenges, some familiar from the general public management literature and some more unique to public health. To aid understanding, the PMM ladder, a framework for evaluating PMM systems is developed and applied to 55 public health measurement systems from Australia, Canada, EU, New Zealand, UK and US. Results indicate that: considerable measurement is occurring for informational purposes; measurement focuses more on clinical than on population health measures; and there is relatively little use of measurement results for improving management. Results demonstrate that much public health performancemeasurement is restricted to population health outcomes and fails to include more proximate activity and output measures that would be more useful for managing public health organizations. There are early signs of the emergence of a new breed of public health performancemeasurement that attempts to do just this. The PMM ladder proved useful for assessing efforts across a range of jurisdictions. It allows policymakers and managers to easily compare their PMM efforts with others and assists researchers in assessing what happens when PMM is applied to public health.

The average airflow inclination in complex terrain may be substantial. The airflow inclination affects wind turbine performance and also affects the cup anemometer being used in power performancemeasurements. In this article the overall dependence of the power curve on inclined airflow is analysed for its influence on both the wind turbine and the cup anemometer. The wind turbine performance analysis is based on results of measurements and theoretical calculations with the aeroelastic code HAWC coupled to a 3D actuator disc model for varying yaw angle. The cup anemometer analysis at inclined flow is based on an averaging of measured angular characteristics in a wind tunnel with the distribution of airflow inclination angles over time. The relative difference in annual energy production in terrain with inclined airflow compared with flat terrain is simulated for cup anemometers with theoretical optimal angular characteristics for two different definitions of wind speed, as well as for five commercial cup anemometers with measured angular characteristics. Copyright

We present a case study of performancemeasurement and modeling of a CCA (Common Component Architecture) component-based application in a high performance computing environment. We explore issues peculiar to component-based HPC applications and propose a performancemeasurement infrastructure for HPC based loosely on recent work done for Grid environments. A prototypical implementation of the infrastructure is used to collect data for a three components in a scientific application and construct performance models for two of them. Both computational and message-passing performance are addressed.

We study the use of performancemeasurement systems in the public sector. We hypothesize that the way in which these systems are being used affects organizational performance, and that these performance effects depend on contractibility. Contractibility encompasses clarity of goals, the ability to

We study the use of performancemeasurement systems in the public sector. We hypothesize that the way in which these systems are being used affects organizational performance, and that these performance effects depend on contractibility. Contractibility encompasses clarity of goals, the ability to

OBJECTIVES: To systematically review the measurement properties of performance-based measures to assess physical function in people with hip and/or knee osteoarthritis (OA). METHODS: Electronic searches were performed in MEDLINE, CINAHL, Embase, and PsycINFO up to the end of June 2012. Two...

Rice gel was prepared by simulating the production processes of Chinese local rice noodles,and the properties of thermal relaxation and mechanical relaxation during gelatinization were studied by differential scanning calorimetry(DSC) measurement and dynamic rheometer.The results show that during gelatinization,the molecular chains of rice starch undergo the thermal relaxation and mechanical relaxation.During the first heating and high temperature holding processes,the starch crystallites in the rice slurry melt,and the polymer chains stretch and interact,then viscoelastic gel forms.The cooling and low temperatures holding processes result in reinforced networks and decrease the viscoelasticity of the gel.During the second heating,the remaining starch crystallites further melt,the network is reinforced,and the viscoelasticity increases.The viscoelasticity,the molecular conformation and texture of the gel are adjusted by changing the temperature,and finally construct the gel with the textural characteristics of Chinese local rice noodle.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Education Council has embarked on an ambitious Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) project that will allow it to assess education program outcomes and impacts across the agency, line offices, and programs. The purpose of this internal effort is to link outcome measures to program efforts and to evaluate the success of the agency's education programs in meeting the strategic goals. Using an outcome-based evaluation approach, the NOAA Education Council is developing two sets of common outcome performancemeasures, environmental stewardship and professional development. This presentation will examine the benefits and tradeoffs of common outcome performancemeasures that collect program results across a portfolio of education programs focused on common outcomes. Common outcome performancemeasures have a few benefits to our agency and to the climate education field at large. The primary benefit is shared understanding, which comes from our process for writing common outcome performancemeasures. Without a shared and agreed upon set of definitions for the measure of an outcome, the reported results may not be measuring the same things and would incorrectly indicate levels of performance. Therefore, our writing process relies on a commitment to developing a shared set of definitions based on consensus. We hope that by taking the time to debate and coming to agreement across a diverse set of programs, the strength of our common measures can indicate real progress towards outcomes we care about. An additional benefit is that these common measures can be adopted and adapted by other agencies and organizations that share similar theories of change. The measures are not without their drawbacks, and we do make tradeoffs as part of our process in order to continue making progress. We know that any measure is necessarily a narrow slice of performance. A slice that may not best represent the unique and remarkable contribution

The authors utilized numerous documents created by advisory groups, expert panels and multicultural focus groups to develop performancemeasures for assessing the cultural competency of mental health systems. Competency was measured within three levels of organizational structure: administrative, provider network, and individual caregiver. Indicators, measures and data sources for needs assessment, information exchange, services, human resources, plans and policies, and outcomes were identified. Procedures for selection and implementation of the most critical measures are suggested. The products of this project are broadly applicable to the concerns of all cultural groups.

In this paper, we systematically evaluate the performance of adaptive adjustment of the relaxation parameters of various iterative algorithms for X-ray CT reconstruction relying on sparsity priors. Sparsity prior has been found to be an efficient strategy in CT reconstruction where significantly fewer attenuation measurements are available. Sparsity prior CT reconstruction relies on iterative algorithms such as the algebraic reconstruction technique (ART) to produce a crude reconstruction based on which a sparse approximation is performed. Data driven adjustment of relaxation has been found to ensure better convergence than traditional relaxation for ART. In this paper, we study the performance of such data driven relaxation on a (CS) compressed sensing environment. State-of-the-art algorithms are implemented and their performance analyzed in regard to conventional and data-driven relaxation. Experiments are performed both on simulated and real environments. For the simulated case, experiments are conducted w...

Full Text Available Library networked statistics and performancemeasures are important indicators of the use, uses, and users of networked services that libraries offer their patrons. This article focuses on three efforts to develop and standardize library network statistics and performancemeasures. In particular, the article discusses, compares, and contrasts selected aspects of the International Standards Organization (ISO, U.S. public library network statistics, and Association of Research Library (ARL efforts. The three approaches attempt to capture, describe, and present library networked activities in similar ways through similar approaches – yet they differ in key areas. It is important to note that there are a number of national and international efforts underway that continue to research the library network statistics and performancemeasure environment.

We present an extensive set of simulation results for the stress relaxation in equilibrium and step-strained bead-spring polymer melts. The data allow us to explore the chain dynamics and the shear relaxation modulus, G(t), into the plateau regime for chains with Z=40 entanglements and into the t......We present an extensive set of simulation results for the stress relaxation in equilibrium and step-strained bead-spring polymer melts. The data allow us to explore the chain dynamics and the shear relaxation modulus, G(t), into the plateau regime for chains with Z=40 entanglements...... and into the terminal relaxation regime for Z=10. Using the known (Rouse) mobility of unentangled chains and the melt entanglement length determined via the primitive path analysis of the microscopic topological state of our systems, we have performed parameter-free tests of several different tube models. We find...

Full Text Available This study aims at developing a performancemeasurement system (PMS for research and development (R&D activities carried out by public research centres. Public research institutions are characterized by multiple stakeholders with different needs, and the management of R&D activities requires balancing the multiple goals of different stakeholders. This characteristic is a key issue in the process of construction of the PMS. Empirical evidence is provided by an Italian public research centre, where the researchers carried out a project aimed to develop a PMS following action research principles. This project gave the possibility to researchers to interact with different stakeholders and integrate their different information needs in a comprehensive set of key performance indicators (KPIs. As a result, multidimensional framework for measuring R&D performance in a public research centre is proposed and a set of Key Performance Indicators is developed, suggesting implications for academics and practitioners.

A ceramic SmAlO{sub 3} (SAO) sample is synthesized by the solid-state reaction technique. The Rietveld refinement of the X-ray diffraction pattern has been done to find the crystal symmetry of the sample at room temperature. An impedance spectroscopy study of the sample has been performed in the frequency range from 50 Hz to 1 MHz and in the temperature range from 313 K to 573 K. Dielectric relaxation peaks are observed in the imaginary parts of the spectra. The Cole-Cole model is used to analyze the dielectric relaxation mechanism in SAO. The temperature-dependent relaxation times are found to obey the Arrhenius law having an activation energy of 0.29 eV, which indicates that polaron hopping is responsible for conduction or dielectric relaxation in this material. The complex impedance plane plot of the sample indicates the presence of both grain and grain-boundary effects and is analyzed by an electrical equivalent circuit consisting of a resistance and a constant-phase element. The frequency-dependent conductivity spectra follow a double-power law due to the presence of two plateaus. (orig.)

This paper introduces a high accuracy method of measuring crankshaft angular position of an internal combustion engine. The method uses a sensor which couples magnetically to the starter ring gear. There are may automotive applications of this measurement of crankshaft angular position including ignition timing reference, engine performancemeasurement and certain diagnostic functions. The present paper discusses only the ignition timing application.

Full Text Available The article presents the significance of evaluation and measurement of library performance. The measurement of the medium tirne of document delivery from closed stacks in one library according to the methodology of standard ISO 11620 is described. Further, the significance of creative problem solving in libraries in transition in the light of fast technological development is presented, followed by cases of used opportunities from foreign libraries. In the conclusion, the link between time measurements of library performance and creative problemsolving in the frames of seminar papers of students of librarianship is presented. The results of the measurements of the medium time of document search in open access are presented together with the analysis of the state of affairs and some students' suggestions for improvements.

The comparative performance of twelve different late-model color-measuring instruments was studied for precision (short-term repeatability) and conformance of color measurement and color-difference measurement.The instruments tested included four true and two abridged spectrophotometers and six colorimeters, all being integrating-sphere instruments except three 45 degrees /0 degrees colorimeters. All the colorimeters were individually calibrated for close conformance to CIE coordinates. Forty-four samples taken from the group studied in the previous paper were measured three times on each instrument, by three different well-trained operators. Again, a GE spectrophotometer was considered the reference instrument for conformance studies. Overall, the GE spectrophotometer, the Hunterlab D25D colorimeter, and the Kollmorgen KCS-18 and KCS-40 abridged spectrophotometers demonstrated the best performance. Statistical treatment of the data has been improved vastly since the earlier paper, and some recalculated results are included.

Sensitivity and human performance are two important parameters for IR imaging system. Noise equivalent temperature difference (NETD) and minimum resolvable temperature difference (MRTD) can describe sensitivity and human performance of IR imaging system. So a lot of engineers apply themselves to studying the methods to measure NETD and MRTD for IR imaging system. The classical laboratory measurement methodologies for NETD and MRTD are introduced. And, two new approaches to three-dimensional (3-D) noise and MRTD/MRC are also portrayed, which can overcome some of the disadvantages existed in classical testing of NETD and MRTD. With the help of the new laboratory measurements, the disadvantages of the classical methods to measure NETD and MRTD can be solved.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of ecology-based performancemeasures as a way of augmenting the Balanced Scorecard approach to organizational performancemeasurement. The Balanced Scorecard, as proposed by Kaplan and Norton, focuses on four primary dimensions; financial, internal-business-process, customer, and learning and growth perspectives. Recently, many 'green' organizational theorists have developed the concept of "Ecologically Sustainable Organizations" or ESOs, a concept rooted in open systems theory. The ESO is called upon to consider resource use and conservation as a strategy for long-term viability. This paper asserts that in order to achieve ESO status, an organization must not only measure but also reward resource conservation measures. Only by adding a fifth perspective for ecological dimensions will the entity be truly motivated toward ESO status.

Full Text Available Educational field is impelled to increase performance and quality, financial discipline, strategic behaviour and its goals in order to enhance “effectiveness”. As a result the incorporation of private sector management practices into the educational field is taking place. But it is important to notice that a proliferation of private managerial practices into the educational field goes along with a conflict-laden and contradictory process. Education provides an important area of implementation for techniques of performance evaluation aimed at improving the performance of public services. One of the most common conceptual frameworks in measuring organisational performance takes the form of a production function where the educational institution is seen as analogous to a company transforming inputs into outputs and outcomes through a production process. But the problems and the vagueness in determining educational system’s inputs, outputs and outcomes cause difficulties in making political decisions and that is why clear policy prescriptions have been difficult to derive. The purpose of this article is to create a discussion whether performancemeasurement should be a part of decision-making in educational politics. The authors debate about incorporating private sector management practices into the educational field. The debate is based on the example of evaluating the social impact in the educational field and the performance of teachers’ work in the educational system. The article consists of three parts. Firstly, the theoretical background of the performancemeasurement in educational field is discussed. Secondly, the important criteria for performancemeasurement design and political issues are argued. Thirdly, the evaluated shortcomings in Estonian educational organisations, which restrict them to be effective, are brought out. Relieving some of these shortcomings could be in authority of Estonian educational politics.

Many providers are using a balanced scorecard to measureperformance. Another tool that can be used with the balanced scorecard is a visual dashboard. Visual dashboards can help managers easily access and analyze their key performance indicators (KPIs), saving time and confusion. The experience of St. Luke's Episcopal Health System shows that successful application of a balanced scorecard requires integrating information and using the visual dashboards to provide immediate organizationwide access to KPIs.

Injecting phase calibration (PCAL) signals to the feed horn of the observation system and analyzing the output response signals of the spectrometer, we measured the working performance of a 4096-channel digital autocalibration spectrometer. The results demonstrate that the spectrometer has a fine working performance: (1) the channels are distributed uniformly in the spectrometer; (2) line drift produces little effect on the observation results; (3)spectral resolution shows little changes with observation time. The distribution of the frequency resolution in an 80 MHz bandwidth was measured. A trial observation on the two molecular spectral lines of H2CO and H 110α taken with this spectrometer is described.

This article is about a measurement analysis based approach to help software practitioners in managing the additional level complexities and variabilities in software product line applications. The architecture of the proposed approach i.e. ZAC is designed and implemented to perform preprocessesed source code analysis, calculate traditional and product line metrics and visualize results in two and three dimensional diagrams. Experiments using real time data sets are performed which concluded with the results that the ZAC can be very helpful for the software practitioners in understanding the overall structure and complexity of product line applications. Moreover the obtained results prove strong positive correlation between calculated traditional and product line measures.

Full Text Available Performancemeasurement in energy industry plays an important role on increasing the productivity. Electricity is also among the most essential components of energy in mega cities like Tehran. The lack of a good service in this city may result unpleasant consequences on most civilians who live in this city. This paper presents an empirical investigation to measure the performance of six major electricity contractors in city of Tehran, Iran. The study implements grey numbers to handle any uncertainty associated with numbers. The study has also adopted four main perspectives used in balanced scorecard as part of PROMETHEE method to rank different contractors.

The Information Systems Directorate at JSC/NASA has undertaken the reevaluation of its performancemeasures process and measures. Under the direction of a quality approach it is essential to identify an external perspective of how well an organization is performing. This study was conducted with two major objectives: (1) survey and summarize the academic literature on performancemeasures as indicators of information systems (IS) effectiveness; and (2) survey organizations for their experience in measuring for IS effectiveness. Four approaches to measuring the effectiveness of IS performance were identified: (1) listen to the customer for the things they need; (2) align with corporate goals; (3) benchmark against well-respected organizations; and (4) ask yourself what critical factors lead to success. The list of known methods for soliciting customer feedback are as follows: (1) executive visit; (2) survey, interview, and focus group; (3) complaints and compliments; and (4) service level agreements. A common set of characteristics that satisfy customers was identified from the literature. The list includes elements such as the following: accuracy, timeliness, relevance, understandability, reliability, and completeness. Future research in this topic area should prove beneficial to determine the metrics for external validity.

Found in our recent dielectric study of a planar and rigid glass-former, 1-methylindole (1MID), is an unusual secondary relaxation unrelated in its dynamic properties to the structural α-relaxation. We speculated that it originates from the in-plane motion of the molecules, and the supposedly universal Johari-Goldstein (JG) β-relaxation with strong connection to the structural α-relaxation in rigid glass-formers is not resolved [X. Q. Li et al. J. Chem. Phys. 143, 104505 (2015)]. In this work, dielectric measurements are performed in binary mixtures of 1MID with two aromatics of weak polarity, ethylbenzene (EB) and triphenylethylene (TPE), in the highly viscous regimes near glass transition. EB and TPE have smaller and larger molecular sizes and glass transition temperatures Tg than 1MID, respectively. Strikingly, the results show that the resolved secondary relaxations of 1MID in the two mixtures share the same relaxation time and their temperature dependence as pure 1MID, independent of the mode and degree of dilution. The results indicate that the unusual secondary relaxation is not directly coupled with the α-relaxation, and support the in-plane-rotation interpretation of its origin. On the other hand, the supposedly universal and intermolecular JG β-relaxation coming from the out-of-plane motion of the planar molecule has weaker dielectric strength, and it cannot be resolved from the more intense in-plane-rotation secondary relaxation because the dipole moment of 1MID lies on the plane.

Dielectric relaxation study of the binary mixtures of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) (Mw = 24000, 40000 and 360000 g mol-1) with ethyl alcohol (EA) and poly(ethylene glycol)s (PEGs) (Mw = 200 and 400 g mol-1) in dilute solutions of dioxane were carried out at 10.1 GHz and 35°} C. The relaxation time of PVP–EA mixtures was interpreted by the consideration of a wait-and-switch model in the local structure of self-associated ethyl alcohol molecules and also the PVP chain length as a geometric constraint for the reorientational motion of ethyl alcohol molecules. The formation of complexes and effect of PVP chain length on the molecular dynamics, chain flexibility and stretching of PEG molecules in PVP–PEG mixtures were explored from the comparative values of dielectric relaxation time. Further, relaxation time values in dioxane and benzene solvent confirm the viscosity independent molecular dynamics in PVP–EA mixtures but the values vary significantly with the non-polar solvent environment.

In this paper a first attempt at deriving an improved performancemeasure for language models, the probability ratio measure (PRM) is described. In a proof of concept experiment, it is shown that PRM correlates better with recognition accuracy and can lead to better recognition results when used as the optimisation criterion of a clustering algorithm. Inspite of the approximations and limitations of this preliminary work, the results are very encouraging and should justify more work along the same lines.

Full Text Available In the current dynamic environment, measuring a company’s performance becomes exceedingly complex since PerformanceMeasurements Systems (PMS not only measure a company’s performance but also reflect their organizational culture and philosophy. Designing and implementing PMS is an integral part of management control systems. However, traditional PMS are criticized for being obsolete, irrelevant to managerial decision making, unrelated to strategic objectives and detrimental to organizational improvements. Given the shortcomings of traditional PMS, there is need for a new framework that can lead to the design of a PMS that balances short-term and long-term measures, internal and external measures, and financial and operational measures. This paper presents issues associated with the needs of a dynamic PMS, observe past research achievements in PMS and review past PMS frameworks that have been introduced. The paper then proposes an improved methodology for the design of a realistic PMS and its effective implementation in a manufacturing environment with case for Indonesia’s company.

Residential construction practices are progressing toward higher levels of energy efficiency. A proven strategy to save energy is to simultaneously increase building insulation levels and reduce outdoor air infiltration. Overall, this strategy results in a shift in the mix of latent and sensible space conditioning loads, requiring proportionally more moisture to be removed compared to standard homes. In this project, researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) developed steady state performance maps to predict dehumidifier performance at a variety of indoor conditions. However, installed heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC) equipment rarely operates at steady state. Part load performance testing of residential dehumidifiers is not mandated by current test standards. Therefore, the team tested the part load performance of four residential dehumidifiers in NREL’s Advanced HVAC Systems Laboratory . The part load efficiency of each dehumidifier was measured under 13 cycling scenarios, and combined with NREL field data to develop part load fraction (PLF) performance curves under realistic cycling scenarios.

Full Text Available The main objective of this study was to develop a set of measures, evaluate their importance and effect in cold supply chain performance. This investigation reviewed previous research works on all the stages of the farm product supply chain. Based on farm product supply chain, 4 measures with 31 metrics were identified and developed to measure the cold supply chain performance. A survey was organized to establish the importance and the effect of identified measures. The 5 point Likert scale questionnaire was distributed among SC academics and practitioners. The observed finding infers that the measurement instrument was substantiating for evaluating cold supply chain performance in farm industry. The new developed metrics will help firms improve the visibility of supply among partners and in better decision making. The investigation was enfolded up through the plan of direction intended for future study.

The mean effective gain (MEG) is an attractive performancemeasure of mobile handsets, since it incorporates both directional and polarization properties of the handset and environment. In this work the MEG is computed from measured spherical radiation patterns of five different mobile handsets......, both in free space and including a human head & shoulder phantom. Different models of the environment allow a comparison of the MEG obtained for realistic models based on measurements with the total radiated power (TRP) and the total isotropic sensitivity (TIS). All the comparisons are based on the MEG...

The mean effective gain is an attractive performancemeasure of mobile handsets, since it incorporates both directional and polarization properties of the handset and environment. In this work the mean effective gain is computed from measured spherical radiation patterns of five different mobile...... handsets, both in free space and including a human head & shoulder phantom. Different models of the environment allow a comparison of the mean effective gain obtained for realistic models based on measurements with the total radiated power and the total isotropic sensitivity. All the comparisons are based...

Relaxation labelling is an optimization technique used in many fields to solve constraint satisfaction problems. The algorithm finds a combination of values for a set of variables such that satisfies -to the maximum possible degree- a set of given constraints. This paper describes some experiments performed applying it to POS tagging, and the results obtained. It also ponders the possibility of applying it to word sense disambiguation.

Full Text Available Nowadays, organisations must cope with the pressure of cost reduction and efficiency in order to succeed in a highly competitive business environment. However, drivers to improve social interaction and employee’s performance and as such to contribute to organisational goals and objectives make it necessary to be concerned with other performance criteria as well, such as effectiveness, flexibility, employee satisfaction, productivity and creativity. There is a growing need for performance management and performancemeasurement that not only covers all aspects of an organisation, but which can be applied to various situations in a changing internal and external environment. Performancemeasurement methods which include an integrated perspective of performance have become essential. In addition, it has been realised that corporate real estate can contribute to organisational performance (Nourse and Roulac, 1993, De Vries et al., 2008, Lindholm, 2008, Den Heijer, 2011, Jensen et al., 2012. For this reason, worldwide organisations started to implement new ways of working in a more open and flexible work environment. Although there are various objectives and drivers of workplace change, the common objectives are to reduce costs and to increase efficiency. The changing organisational and external contexts, such as the increasing demand for talented knowledge workers and changing work patterns, have led to the development of new offices that can promote social networks and interaction among employees. The new workplace does not only aim at achieving cost efficiency, but it should also support employee satisfaction and productivity.This PhD research focuses on both themes i.e. performancemeasurement of workplace change. The aim of this research is to provide a conceptual framework that visualises the impact of workplace change on employees’ responses to the new work environment and to present guidelines on performancemeasurement of workplace change

Full Text Available The development of performance indicators in the military is dependent on the measurability of its associated strategies. Von Clausewitz (1976) argues that nations are either at war or preparing for war. It follows that military forces should have a...

Abstract This article traces the aims and formats of performancemeasurement of Danish Universities as they originate from the Ministry of Finance’s plan for governance of the public sector. The article further show that the fierce conflicts between central administration and the universities over...

Full Text Available Sovereign wealth funds as the subjects of economic relations are analyzed and the main approaches to the assessment of their activities are discussed. The dependence of the performancemeasurement system and the strategic objectives of the funds and economic policy objectives of the government is indicated.

A study of two rounds of in vivo laboratory performance testing was undertaken by Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) to determine the appropriateness of the in vivo performance criteria of draft American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard ANSI N13.3, Performance Criteria for Bioassay.'' The draft standard provides guidance to in vivo counting facilities regarding the sensitivity, precision, and accuracy of measurements for certain categories of commonly assayed radionuclides and critical regions of the body. This report concludes the testing program by presenting the results of the Round Two testing. Testing involved two types of measurements: chest counting for radionuclide detection in the lung, and whole body counting for detection of uniformly distributed material. Each type of measurement was further divided into radionuclide categories as defined in the draft standard. The appropriateness of the draft standard criteria by measuring a laboratory's ability to attain them were judged by the results of both round One and Round Two testing. The testing determined that performance criteria are set at attainable levels, and the majority of in vivo monitoring facilities passed the criteria when complete results were submitted. 18 refs., 18 figs., 15 tabs.

Psychological resilience is important in sport because athletes must constantly withstand a wide range of pressures to attain and sustain high performance. To advance psychologists' understanding of this area, there exists an urgent need to develop a sport-specific measure of resilience. The purpose of this article is to review psychometric…

Psychological resilience is important in sport because athletes must constantly withstand a wide range of pressures to attain and sustain high performance. To advance psychologists' understanding of this area, there exists an urgent need to develop a sport-specific measure of resilience. The purpose of this article is to review psychometric…

This experiential exercise presents the concept of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and applies it in a university setting. The Balanced Scorecard was developed 12 years ago and has grown in popularity and is used by more than 50% of the Fortune 500 companies as a performancemeasurement and strategic management tool. The BSC expands the traditional…

This paper traces the development of teacher candidate benchmarks at one liberal arts institution. Begun as a classroom assessment activity over ten years ago, the benchmarks, through collaboration with professional development school partners, now serve as a primary measure of teacher candidates' performance in the final phases of the…

This paper contributes to the core research in international business (IB), namely the relation between multinationality and performance, and is concerned with the quality of past empirical research designs. On the basis of 49 studies, we critically evaluate the match between performancemeasures...

Despite some evidence of its usefulness, performancemeasurement by using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in the construction industry also has its critics. Among the shortcomings attributed to existing KPIs is the fact that almost all of them are product oriented. This means that the indicators

Despite some evidence of its usefulness, performancemeasurement by using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in the construction industry also has its critics. Among the shortcomings attributed to existing KPIs is the fact that almost all of them are product oriented. This means that the indicators a

The US Army Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate (NVESD) Modeling and Simulation Division develops sensors models (FLIR 92, NV Therm, NV Therm IP) that predict the comparative performance of electro-optical sensors. The NVESD modeling branch developed a 12-vehicle, 12-aspect target signature set in 1998 with a known cycle criteria. It will be referred to as the 12-target set. This 12-target set has and will continue to be the modeling "gold standard" for laboratory human perception experiments supporting sensor performance modeling, and has been employed in dozens of published experiments. The 12-target set is, however, too costly for most acquisition field tests and evaluations. The authors developed an 8-vehicle 3-aspect target set, referred to as the 8- target set, and measured its discrimination task difficulty, (N50 and V50). Target identification (ID) range performance predictions for several sensors were made based on those V50/N50 values. A field collection of the 8-target set using those sensors provided imagery for a human perception study. The human perception study found excellent agreement between predicted and measured range performance. The goal of this development is to create a "silver standard" target set that is as dependable in measuring sensor performance as the "gold standard", and is affordable for Milestone A and other field trials.

Dynamic Contrast Enhanced (DCE) MRI is a promising tool for tumor treatment planning. However, prior knowledge of the T1 value within each tumor voxel is needed to utilize this technique. Therefore, a T1 relaxationmeasurement is performed before the DCE experiment to establish a baseline, before...... any injection of contrast agent. This T1 relaxationmeasurement is often performed using a variable flip angle spoiled gradient recalled echo (SPGR) sequence. T1 can then be estimated using either a linear least squares (LLS) or a non-linear least squares (NLS) fitting algorithm....

Full Text Available Data association is one of the key problems in the SLAM community. Several data association failures may cause the SLAM results to be divergent. Data association performance in SLAM is affected by both data association methods and sensor information. Two measures of handling sensor information are introduced herein to enhance data association performance in SLAM. For the first measure, truncating strategy of limited features, instead of all matched features, is used for observation update. These features are selected according to an information variable. This truncating strategy is used to lower the effect of false matched features. For the other measure, a special rejecting mechanism is designed to reject suspected observations. When the predicted robot pose is obviously different from the updated robot pose, all observed sensor information at this moment is discarded. The rejecting mechanism aims at eliminating accidental sensor information. Experimental results indicate that the introduced measuresperform well in improving the stability of data association in SLAM. These measures are of extraordinary value for real SLAM applications.

The next-generation of high-performance networks being developed in DOE communities are critical for supporting current and emerging data-intensive science applications. The goal of this project is to investigate multi-domain network status sampling techniques and tools to measure/analyze performance, and thereby provide “network awareness” to end-users and network operators in DOE communities. We leverage the infrastructure and datasets available through perfSONAR, which is a multi-domain measurement framework that has been widely deployed in high-performance computing and networking communities; the DOE community is a core developer and the largest adopter of perfSONAR. Our investigations include development of semantic scheduling algorithms, measurement federation policies, and tools to sample multi-domain and multi-layer network status within perfSONAR deployments. We validate our algorithms and policies with end-to-end measurement analysis tools for various monitoring objectives such as network weather forecasting, anomaly detection, and fault-diagnosis. In addition, we develop a multi-domain architecture for an enterprise-specific perfSONAR deployment that can implement monitoring-objective based sampling and that adheres to any domain-specific measurement policies.

This article reports the results of an analysis of the relationship between supplemental benefits offered by Medicare+Choice (M+C) plans and their plan performance ratings. We examined two measures of plan performance: (1) plan ratings as reported in the Medicare Managed Care (MMC) Consumer Assessment of Health Care Study (CAHPS), and (2) disenrollment rates. The results of our analysis indicated that variations in plan supplemental offerings have little impact on enrollees' plan performance ratings--both overall ratings and access to care measures. Furthermore, disenrollment rates were found to be more sensitive to the availability of alternative M+C plans, either in general, or for specific benefits than to variations in benefit offerings.

Once a year, the SC conferences present a unique opportunity to create and build one of the most complex and highest performance networks in the world. At SC2000, large-scale and complex local and wide area networking connections were demonstrated, including large-scale distributed applications running on different architectures. This project was designed to use the unique opportunity presented at SC2000 to create a testbed network environment and then use that network to demonstrate and evaluate high performance computational and communication applications. This testbed was designed to incorporate many interoperable systems and services and was designed for measurement from the very beginning. The end results were key insights into how to use novel, high performance networking technologies and to accumulate measurements that will give insights into the networks of the future.

This book addresses issues to do with public accountability, audit and performancemeasurement that are both highly topical and of crucial importance to the theory and practice of public administration in an era of contractualized public management. The literature on public sector contracting...... of audit and accountability in a variety of countries and contexts; the third part offers some wider, cross-cutting perspectives. Based on the work of the EGPA permanent study group on the history of contractualization, Contracts, PerformanceMeasurement and Accountability in the Public Sector draws upon...... - covering both 'hard' agreements (ones that are legally enforceable) and 'soft' agreements (enforced by negotiation and mutual trust) - has been growing for some time and the present book adds a primarily European perspective on contracting, performance-based management and accountability. One important...

Full Text Available During the past few years, balanced scorecard (BSC has been widely used as a promising method for performancemeasurement. BSC studies organizations in terms of four perspectives including customer, internal processes, learning and growth and financial figures. This paper presents a hybrid of BSC and structural equation modeling (SEM to measure the performance of an Iranian university in province of Alborz, Iran. The proposed study of this paper uses this conceptual method, designs a questionnaire and distributes it among some university students and professors. Using SEM technique, the survey analyzes the data and the results indicate that the university did poorly in terms of all four perspectives. The survey extracts necessary target improvement by presenting necessary attributes for performance improvement.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), under an interagency agreement with the United States Department of Transportation (DOT), is supporting development of objective test and measurement procedures for vehicle-based warning systems intended to warn an inattentive driver of imminent rear-end, road-departure and lane-change crash scenarios. The work includes development of track and on-road test procedures, and development of an independent measurement system, which together provide data for evaluating warning system performance. This paper will provide an overview of DOT's Integrated Vehicle-Based Safety System (IVBSS) program along with a review of the approach for objectively testing and measuring warning system performance.

脉冲光声光谱法一个重要的应用是确定气体分子的振动—平动弛豫时间τV-T.因激光光束的空间分布R(r)对光声测量有显著影响,我们发展了同时测定R(r)和τV-T的方法.本方法基于光声脉冲的实时信号和一种用于光声成像的数学运算法则.本文讨论了智能计算用于多原子气体分子的R(r)和τV-T同时和实时测定的可能性.进一步利用前馈多层神经网络的离线批训练法,结合一个理论光声信号对R(r)和τV-T进行了同时和实时分析.本方法可明显缩短确定上述参数所需时间.%Determination of the vibrational-to-translational relaxation time rv-T in gases is one of the applications of pulsed photoacoustic spectroscopy.Because the spatial profile of the laser beam R (r)can significantly influence the accuracy of the photoacoustic measurements,we developed the method for simultaneous determination of the R(r)and τv T.It is based on the temporal shape of the photoacoustic pulse and utilizes a mathematical algorithm developed for photoacoustic tomography.The possibilities of computational intelligence application for simultaneous and real-time determination of R(r)and rv-T values of polyatomic molecules in gases by pulsed photoacoustic are also discussed.Feed forward multilayer perception networks are trained in an offline batch training regime to estimate simultaneously,and in real-time,R(r) (profile shape class) and τv T from a given (theoretical) photoacoustic signals.Proposed method significantly shortens the time required for the simultaneous determination of the afore mentioned quantities.

Full Text Available The users of financial statements need information regarding the resources of an economic entity and also data regarding the way in which the entity’s management is using resources. This information helps users to quantify efficiency and performance within an entity. There are many stakeholders who do show interest in an entity’s financial reports, including existing and potential investors, employees, lenders, suppliers, customers, regulators and other government agencies and not the least the common citizens. The main purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of the performancemeasurement and to discuss possible reporting methods. Performance is a concept that raises many questions regarding the most accurate way or the best method for quantifying and reporting performance at the company level .So if financial performance indicators are considered to offer an accurate image of the situation of a company, the modern approach which focuses also on non-financial indicators offers new perspectives upon performancemeasurement, which may be really expressive and also based on simplicity.

Full Text Available UCITS investment funds represent an important investment opportunity for retail, as well for institutional investors in the European Union. The aim of this paper is to analyse the performance of the UCITS investment funds in Croatia and to detect relatively homogeneous groups among the UCITS funds based on its performance. The analysis includes 55 UCITS, in the period from the beginning of 2011 until the end of 2014, and it is conducted on daily data of share prices, available from Bloomberg terminal. Analysis is performed separately within the groups of different investment fund by investment strategy. The research methodology is based on the calculation of various indicators of absolute and relative risk-adjusted performance and riskiness of the funds. In general, based on analysis of performancemeasures, it can be concluded that funds with higher values of net assets were more successful compared to the funds with below-average asset values. Also, funds with below-average values of net assets were more volatile. At the same time, funds run by foreign own management companies were more successful by the absolute performancemeasures, compared to funds run by management companies with domestic ownership. On the other hand, those funds were more volatile, as well.

Full Text Available Now individual contest among enterprises has been turning into collective contest among supply chains. Supply chain management (SCM has been a major component of competitive strategy to enhance organizational productivity and profitability. In recent years, organizational performancemeasurement and metrics have received much attention from researchers and practitioners. The foundation of proper supply chain performance assessment system is the basis of its effective operation and management. Most of the traditional supply chain performance evaluation is a static evaluation, while the actual supply chain is a dynamic system, therefore need to adapt with ways to carry out the evaluation. In order to meet the needs of the dynamic alliance's overall performance evaluation, this paper extended the traditional four Balanced Scorecard dimension into five. On this basis, established the five Balanced Scorecard dimension of supply chain, and also established a three-layered of quantitative index system according to this model. Measured then each performance indexs value by using the theory of Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process, meanwhile reduced the number of input of the Support Vector Machine (SVM by using classification method, finally, got performance evaluations result by using the weighted Least Squares Support Vector Machine (LS-SVM, which provides the basis for rational analysis and decision-making of the supply chain.

To examine the extent to which health plan quality measures capture physician practice patterns rather than plan characteristics. We gathered and merged secondary data from the following four sources: a private firm that collected information on individual physicians and their health plan affiliations, The National Committee for Quality Assurance, InterStudy, and the Dartmouth Atlas. We constructed two measures of physician network overlap for all health plans in our sample and linked them to selected measures of plan performance. Two linear regression models were estimated to assess the relationship between the measures of physician network overlap and the plan performancemeasures. The results indicate that in the presence of a higher degree of provider network overlap, plan performancemeasures tend to converge to a lower level of quality. Standard health plan performancemeasures reflect physician practice patterns rather than plans' effort to improve quality. This implies that more provider-oriented measurement, such as would be possible with accountable care organizations or medical homes, may facilitate patient decision making and provide further incentives to improve performance.

Full Text Available Background. Some adult stroke survivors participating in Cognitive Orientation to daily Occupational Performance (CO-OP treatment programs self-generated relax strategies that have not been explored in previous CO-OP publications. The objective of this study was to describe the process by which adults with stroke used relax strategies and to explore the outcomes associated with their use. Methods. Secondary analysis of transcripts of intervention sessions from five participants was conducted. Results. All five participants applied relax strategies after initially observing a breakdown in performance that was attributed to increased fatigue or tension. The relax strategies used by the participants during their occupations included general relaxation, physical modifications to reduce tension, mental preparation, and pacing. The application of these strategies seemed to result in improved skill performance, reduced fatigue, and transfer to other activities. Conclusion. The relax strategy warrants further investigation as a potentially important therapeutic tool to improve occupational performance in individuals who have had a stroke.

A prognostic cloud scheme named McRAS (Microphysics of clouds with Relaxed Arakawa-Schubert Scheme) was developed with the aim of improving cloud-microphysics, and cloud-radiation interactions in GCMs. McRAS distinguishes convective, stratiform, and boundary-layer clouds. The convective clouds merge into stratiform clouds on an hourly time-scale, while the boundary-layer clouds do so instantly. The cloud condensate transforms into precipitation following the auto-conversion relations of Sundqvist that contain a parametric adaptation for the Bergeron-Findeisen process of ice crystal growth and collection of cloud condensate by precipitation. All clouds convect, advect, and diffuse both horizontally and vertically with a fully active cloud-microphysics throughout its life-cycle, while the optical properties of clouds are derived from the statistical distribution of hydrometeors and idealized cloud geometry. An evaluation of McRAS in a single column model (SCM) with the GATE Phase III data has shown that McRAS can simulate the observed temperature, humidity, and precipitation without discernible systematic errors. An evaluation with the ARM-CART SCM data in a cloud model intercomparison exercise shows reasonable but not an outstanding accurate simulation. Such a discrepancy is common to almost all models and is related, in part, to the input data quality. McRAS was implemented in the GEOS II GCM. A 50 month integration that was initialized with the ECMWF analysis of observations for January 1, 1987 and forced with the observed sea-surface temperatures and sea-ice distribution and vegetation properties (biomes, and soils), with prognostic soil moisture, snow-cover, and hydrology showed a very realistic simulation of cloud process, incloud water and ice, and cloud-radiative forcing (CRF). The simulated ITCZ showed a realistic time-mean structure and seasonal cycle, while the simulated CRF showed sensitivity to vertical distribution of cloud water which can be easily

Full Text Available Chui-Lien Tsen,1 Yu-Harn Horng,1 Shwu-Jiuan Sheu1,2 1Department of Ophthalmology, Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, Kaohsiung, Taiwan; 2School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan Background: We describe the anatomical and functional outcomes of eyes that underwent a modified technique of relaxing retinotomy, dashed line relaxing retinotomy, in the management of retinal detachment with anterior proliferative vitreoretinopathy.Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 54 consecutive eyes in 52 patients who received pars plana vitrectomy with relaxing retinotomy during retinal detachment repair. Perfluorocarbon liquid (PFCL was used as a standard procedure to stabilize the retina during retinotomy to prevent slippage or inversion of the posterior flap. If PFCL was not available due to economic reasons, dashed line relaxing retinotomy was performed instead. Best-corrected visual acuity, slit-lamp biomicroscopy, intraocular pressure measurement, lens status, and fundus examination were analyzed. We excluded patients who were followed up <4 months.Results: Regarding anatomical success rates and visual outcomes, we found no significant differences between patients treated with intraoperative PFCL and those treated with dashed line relaxing retinotomy without PFCL.Conclusion: Compared to the simple and efficient PFCL-assisted relaxing retinotomy, dashed relaxing retinotomy is not the first choice when PFCL is available. Based on our results, this modified technique may offer an alternative in patients with anterior proliferative vitreoretinopathy for whom PFCL is not available. Keywords: perfluorocarbon liquid, PFCL

Performancemeasurement can support the organization in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of logistical healthcare processes. Selecting the most suitable technologies is important to ensure data validity. A case study of the hospital cleaning process at a public Danish hospital...

The purpose of this research is to determine X School's Strengths and Opportunity of Improvement through performancemeasurement using KPKU-BUMN (Kriteria Penilaian Kinerja Unggul - Kementerian Badan Usaha Milik Negara). KPKU-BUMN is developed based on Malcolm Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellent (MBCfPE). X school is an education foundation at Bandung that has provides education from kindergarten, elementary school, to junior and senior high school. The measurement is implemented by two aspects, Process and Result. The Process is measured by A-D-L-I approaches (Approach- Deployment-Learning- Integration), on the other hand The Result is measured by Le-T-C-I approach (Level-Trend- Comparison-Integration). There are six processes that will be measured: (1) Leadership, (2) Strategic Planning, (3) Customer Focus, (4) Measurement, Analysis and Knowledge Management, (5) Work Force Focus, and (6) Operation Focus. Meanwhile, the result are (a) product & process outcomes, (b) customer-focused outcomes, (c) workforce-focused outcomes, (d) leadership & governance outcomes, and (e) financial & market outcomes. The overall score for X School is 284/1000, which means X School is at “early result” level at “poor” global image.

A technique has been developed which accurately predicts the performance of underwater acoustic arrays prior to array construction. The technique is based upon the measurement of lumped-parameter equivalent circuit values for each element in the array, and is accurate in predicting the array transmit, receive and beam pattern response. The measurement procedure determines the shunt electrical and motional circuit elements from electrical imittance measurements. The electromechanical transformation ratio is derived from in-air measurements of the radiating face velocity and the input current to the transducer at resonance. The equivalent circuit values of a group of Tonpilz-type transducers were measured, and the self and mutual interaction acoustic loadings for a specific array geometry were calculated. The response of the elements was then predicted for water-loaded array conditions. Based on the predictions, a selection scheme was developed which minimized the effects of inter-element variability on array performance. The measured transmitting, receiving and beam pattern characteristics of a test array, built using the selected elements, were compared to predictions made before the array was built. The results indicated that the technique is accurate over a wide frequency range.